Star Trek Warrior: Titanic
by VoteDave
Summary: A story from a Star Trek fan series I wrote, set aboard the Intrepid-class U.S.S. Warrior. This particular story, set in 2377, during the Warrior's seventh year in space, was a spoof of the 1997 film 'Titanic'.
1. Prologue

Prologue

The planet hung like a huge ball of ice in space. Swirls of mist danced across the atmosphere, while the surface itself was shades of blue and white. There was nothing hospitable about this frozen planet. Which is why it was suprising that a ship was orbiting this uninviting body.

It was a Ferengi D'Kora-class Marauder, and as light from the sun glistened across the ship's hull, a name became visible: _Voltan_. As the vessel glided around the planet's upper hemisphere, something was launched. A small, spherical object with a tubular tail and fin like additions, shot out of the torpedo launcher. It was a probe. And it was heading for the planet surface. Down through the misty atmosphere, through the cloud formations and into the clear day below. All that could be seen for miles was snow. The flat areas were covered with snow, the mountains were covered with snow, the valleys were covered with snow, in fact, the whole planet was snow covered. Even the majority of the oceans had thick layers of ice on them. As it happened, the probe was heading for one of these ice-covered areas of sea. When it reached it's destination, the probe, which had been specially modified for this mission, emitted a short burst of energy, aimed at a patch of ice. This caused the frozen water to melt, and a hole formed, revealing the cold water below. Once the beam terminated, the probe began moving again, dropping into the hole and submerging into the sea.

The ship's First Officer, Taar Brak, stared at a console. The probe had now gone into the sea and was on its way to the bottom of the ocean. The underwater environment was pitch black and so the probe's lights had come on. They were now scouring the area ahead and the visual information was being relayed to this station on the bridge of the Marauder. The ocean looked eerie Brak thought. It was an uncharted planet; there could be any form of life under the sea. He expected to see a huge man-eating lobster swim past the screen any minute. And he could only imagine how cold it was down there. Shuddering, Brak turned to look at the bridge viewscreen. It showed the starscape beyond the planet they were orbiting: in the distance was a nebula, but the swirls of purple and pink were obscured by an asteroid field, not far from the planet itself.

"The probe's approaching the wreck," Brak's reverie was broken by the young Ferengi officer manning the console. "We should be able to see it now." With some enthusiasm, Brak turned back to the console. The probe was moving along the seabed now. As it moved along, an enormous dark object came into view. As the probe's lights moved across the object's surface it became obvious that it was made from a metallic substance, though some kind of green plant life was growing over areas of it. It was still recognisable as a Starfleet ship, however. The large saucer section had a big gash down the starboard side and the majority of the secondary hull, including the warp nacelles, was buried under the sediment on the seabed. Sticking up at the rear of the vessel was a pod, which all Nebula-class starships possessed.

"Well?" the Marauder's Captain, DaiMon Azov, entered the bridge and made his way over to where Brak was watching the probe's data. Considering he was a Ferengi, he had quite an imposing presence. His subordinates watched the DaiMon as he crossed the bridge.

"We've found her," reported Brak. Azov examined the image being transmitted by his probe.

"Take her up over the saucer," Azov ordered the officer at the console, who carried out the task. The three Ferengi watched as the probe moved up the saucer section. As it got higher the lights revealed the phaser strip, then the ship's registry. It then came to the name: _U.S.S. Titanic_. "Excellent!" Azov smiled.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter**

**1**

Captain Blakeney watched intently as the disk flew down from the roof of holodeck 2, straight towards him. He focused himself on the red light along the outer edge of the projectile. The exhausted Captain was vaguely aware of his opponent elsewhere in the room, but wasn't worried about that at present. He raised his type-2 phaser and pointed it at the disk. Aiming, he depressed the trigger and a beam of energy spewed out of the emitter and slammed into the disk, which sent it spinning across the room. The light also changed to blue. As it bounced off the far wall, Blakeney watched his opponent play his move. Lieutenant Erram had no problem in hitting the disk with a blast from his phaser, which changed the light back to red, and sent it flying back towards the wall. But before impact, it was knocked off course by another shot from Blakeney. This sent the projectile off towards Erram, and the unfortunate Bolian was forced to duck so it didn't fly into his forehead. Spinning round Erram saw that the disk had again hit the wall so he raised his phaser and blasted the saucer like object. Another shot from Blakeney soon meant that it was again Erram's turn. His phaser beam sent the disk spiralling up towards the ceiling, which it hit and bounced off. Blakeney stepped back to get a better shot, but bumped into the hologrid behind him. This sent him toppling over and his phaser skidded across the floor. The projectile however, rebounded off the wall where only seconds ago Blakeney was stood, and then flew around the room, behind Erram, and headed back again for Blakeney. But the agile Captain had managed to reach his phaser. He turned and fired just in time to stop the disk hitting him. This sent the saucer spinning to the floor, where it was repelled up towards Erram. It was too quick for the Bolian and it hit him in the stomach, where it vanished.

"Full impact," the computer announced. "Final round to Blakeney. Winner: Blakeney."

Picking himself up off the floor of the holodeck, Blakeney said, "Good game." He picked up his towel, which was placed under the archway. "You almost had me."

"Almost," Erram repeated, picking up his own towel. "I'll beat you next time!"

"I don't doubt it," Blakeney smiled. This was his eighth game of Velocity this week with Erram. The Bolian was definitely getting better.

"Shall we go again?" asked Erram.

"I'd love to," lied the exhausted Blakeney, "but I've got some work that needs doing before this afternoon."

"Fair enough," Erram sighed. He knew he was coming closer and closer to beating his Captain.

"I'll see you on the bridge," stated Blakeney, throwing his towel over his shoulder and exiting the holodeck.

* * *

Commander Joel Stacey MD stepped round a corner on deck 6 and made his way down the corridor. He had just come from the security office, where he'd hoped to find Lieutenant Erram. As he hadn't been there, the Doctor was now heading back towards a turbolift. As he rounded another corner, he saw Blakeney up ahead of him. The Captain was in a T-shirt and lightweight trousers, over his right shoulder was a towel and he appeared to be carrying a phaser.

"Dave," Stacey shouted down the hallway. Blakeney turned around and saw the CMO running towards him.

"Joel," smiled Blakeney, "where are you headed?"

"Back to sickbay," replied Stacey, "I was looking for Erram but he's not in his office."

"That's because he's just been playing Velocity with me," Blakeney said.

"Doesn't anyone do any damn work around here?" joked Stacey.

"If you're quick you might be able to catch him when he comes out of holodeck 2," suggested Blakeney.

Stacey shook his head, "It wasn't important." He looked at Blakeney's sweaty figure and asked, "Good game?"

"He's getting better," Blakeney told him.

"He was good to start with," Stacey sounded almost bitter.

"Don't worry, Joel," Blakeney comforted, "he's a security officer; I'd expect him to be better with a phaser than a Doctor would be. If the game was played with laser scalpels I'm sure you'd kick ass every time!" Stacey shook his head at Blakeney's reasoning, and smiled.

"Bridge to Captain Blakeney," Lieutenant Commander Phillips' voice echoed over the intercom.

"Go ahead, Jenny," Blakeney responded.

"We're receiving an incoming message, sir," Phillips explained, "From the Federation News service. It's addressed directly for you."

"Route it to my quarters," ordered Blakeney.

"Will do," complied Phillips, disconnecting the comm. link.

"I'll catch you later," Blakeney told Stacey as the former hurried off towards the turbolift.

* * *

"Computer," Blakeney ordered the replicator, as he entered his quarters, "Iced tea." He threw his towel over the back of one of his armchairs, then retrieved his beverage and sat at the desk. He turned on his desktop monitor. INCOMING MESSAGE flashed on the screen until Blakeney pushed another button on the viewer. The image was replaced by that of a Human male in his late forties, with curly brown hair.

"Eliot!" Blakeney seemed surprised to see his old friend.

"How are you?" Eliot asked. He had known Blakeney since they were three years old. They went through primary and secondary school together and only really became separated when Blakeney went to Starfleet Academy.

"Not too bad," Blakeney told him, "And you? How's life in the press?" Eliot was a journalist for the United Federation of Planets News Service. He had also published a series of books, a number of which sat on the shelves behind Blakeney.

"I'm well, thanks," Eliot smiled.

"And how's the new book coming along?" inquired Blakeney, sipping his tea. Last time he'd met Eliot he'd only just started his latest novel.

"I just need an ending for it," was Eliot's reply.

"So what can I do for you, old friend?" Blakeney was intrigued.

Eliot paused for a moment, then said, "I came across some information that I thought might interest you."

"Oh?" Blakeney raised an eyebrow.

Eliot elaborated, "It's about your old starship!"

* * *

Commander Michelle Fortescue looked at the data on the console in front of her. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate she couldn't take it in. The numbers and symbols seemed to blur together on the screen. It was no good, she just couldn't focus. Getting up from her desk she went to the little alcove containing a replicator.

"Hot coffee," she ordered. "White." Picking up her beverage, Fortescue walked across her office to the window, where she stared out at the stars. _Mmm that's good! _she thought, sipping her mug of coffee. She hadn't been getting much sleep lately. For one reason or another she'd had one late night after the other. When she did finally climb into her bed she found it difficult to drop off to sleep. _Maybe I'll talk to Doctor Stacey about it. Or even Counsellor Merrick. _A short while later the First Officer returned to her desk, but before she'd even had time to put her mug of coffee down, the intercom sounded.

"Blakeney to Commander Fortescue," Blakeney's voice echoed in the small office.

"What is it, Captain?" Fortescue responded to the hail.

"Something's come up, FO," Blakeney explained, "I need to leave the ship for a while."

"For how long, sir" Fortescue asked.

"I'm not sure," Blakeney told her, "but I'm leaving the _Warrior_ in your capable hands until I return."

* * *

The turbolift doors whooshed open and Fortescue stepped out onto the bridge of the _Warrior_. She was just in time to see a type-9 shuttlecraft on the viewscreen. She knew Blakeney was at the controls. The sleek vehicle moved away from the _Warrior_ and zoomed off at warp speed.

* * *

Azov looked closely at the images being relayed to the console on his bridge. The probe had found one of the breeches in the starboard side of the _Titanic's_ saucer section, and was now roaming around the corridors inside. After entering the _Titanic_ on deck 10, Azov had ordered the probe to deck 5. As it moved down a water filled corridor, something swam in front of it. A strange grey-green creature, about the size of a child. It looked like an Earth fish, but as it opened it's mouth Azov saw three rows of sharp teeth. As the probe moved past it, the fish like creature eyed-up the strange looking piece of machinery, but in the end decided to leave it alone.

"How much further?" Azov asked. Brak, who was now sitting at the probe console, looked down at another screen, showing a deck plan of the _Titanic_.

"It should be around the next corner," he replied. Azov, impatient as ever looked back at the screen and began rubbing his hands together. He had waited almost a year for this. A rouge trader had told him of this treasure when they had met, purely by chance. Since then, Azov had tracked down the item from its planet of origin to its last known location, on the ill-fated _U.S.S. Titanic_. "We're there," announced Brak. Azov snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that the probe had reached the entrance to a set of VIP living quarters.

"Good," smiled Azov, "take us in." Fortunately, the automatic doors, though inoperative, were already slightly ajar. Brak typed a command into his console and the probe began moving in the ocean below. The room it entered was a standard luxury accommodation suite aboard Nebula-class starships. Looking at the quarters, Azov imagined what they must've looked like last time anyone had set foot in them. _A lot tidier, no doubt._ The furniture and ornaments had been thrown about, of course, due to the crash landing and subsequent sinking of the vessel. Many of the items in the room were obviously not Starfleet design. They looked very alien, and very valuable. This confirmed that the probe was in the right suite, at least. There was also a skeleton lying on the floor. The tatters of his clothes were still recognisable as an older version of the Starfleet uniform. "There!" Azov suddenly pointed at the screen. He had noticed a large, alien looking case. It was obviously used to carry personal items. "Bring that up. Beam it directly to the bridge," he ordered. Brak typed in more commands and the probe shot out some sort of tag. It attached itself to the case, thus enabling the Ferengi's transporters to get a lock on it. Azov turned to the young Ferengi officer who had moved to the transporter console. The DaiMon nodded so the officer activated the system. A short sparkle of lights later and the case was sitting in the centre of the bridge. Azov hurried over to where it was now sat in a puddle of water, his lobes were twitching with pleasure. Without hesitation, the Ferengi broke the lock and ripped off the lid. He then began searching the contents. The other Ferengi on the bridge watched intently as their Captain poured through the alien items, which were extremely wet. Azov's face dropped. "It's not here!"

"Are you sure?" Brak asked.

"Off course I'm sure!" Azov snapped back. He returned to the console that controlled the probe. "Carry on searching the quarters!"

* * *

Over an hour later, the crew of the Ferengi Marauder was still searching the sunken starship below. The search in the VIP quarters had proved fruitless, so Azov had ordered other areas of the ship to be searched. The cargo bay had proved negative and now the probe was on its way to the VIP dining room.

"DaiMon," an officer suddenly shouted from a console on the other side of the bridge. Azov looked at him so he continued, "a Federation shuttle is approaching us. One life form aboard. They're requesting permission to come aboard!"

"Request identification," ordered Azov, who was suspicious.

The order was carried out, to which the reply came; "It's Captain Blakeney!"

"Blakeney?" Azov was concerned. "What the hell does he want?"

"He must've heard about our little excavation," Brak suggested.

"Permission granted," decided Azov, "beam him up here now. Transport him straight to the bridge." Since the _Titanic_ used to be Blakeney's ship, Azov reasoned that the Starfleet Captain might prove to be a profitable ally in this venture. He turned to Brak; "This should be interesting!"

* * *

Blakeney looked out of the shuttle and up at the Marauder. Ferengi vessels always reminded him of some sort of bug. He had had many dealings with the Ferengi and had run into this particular ship a number of times before. It had left Blakeney with a sour view of the Ferengi people. As he waited for their reply, he looked at the icy planet ahead. Memories came flooding back; not many of them were good. He noticed the asteroid field by the planet. One of the causes of the misfortune that led him to the planet surface. The nebula behind the field reminded him of the unprovoked Maquis attack. But a beep from the shuttle controls snapped him from his thoughts. The Marauder had responded: STAND BY TO BEAM ABOARD. Blakeney put the shuttle controls on autopilot and got out of his seat. At his waist he wore a type-2 phaser – just in case. Before long he felt a transporter beam take hold of him. A humming sound in his ears signalled the beginning of the dematerialisation process, then there was the brief, flashing swirl of light and the shuttle interior disappeared. It was replaced by the interior of the Ferengi ship, and Blakeney found himself standing on the bridge. Looking around he saw three Ferengi officers hunched over various consoles. DaiMon Azov stood in the corner of the room with Brak, his second in command.

"Well, well, well," grinned Azov, "fancy meeting you here, Starfleet." Blakeney walked towards him, but stopped by the Captain's chair in the centre of the room.

"And what exactly are you and your crew doing in this neck of the woods, DaiMon?" Blakeney asked, knowing full well what they were doing. Azov walked towards Blakeney.

"Would you believe me if I told you we were here on a skiing holiday?" he asked. Blakeney raised an eyebrow, so Azov carried on, "I suspect you know why we're here, Captain."

"Well I did hear a tiny rumour that you've found my old starship," Blakeney said, leaning on the back of his Captain's chair.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," Azov informed him.

"This came from a very reliable source," Blakeney was beginning to tire of this banter.

"It's just a little archaeological excavation," Azov defended.

"So there's no profit involved?" Blakeney sounded sceptical. "I find that hard to believe."

"Salvage rights, Captain," Azov snapped. "Finders keepers!" Blakeney said nothing, but he was finally getting to the truth. Azov moved the subject along; "Would you like to see some of the artefacts we've brought up so far?" Blakeney nodded and he was motioned towards the door in the back wall. He found it strange that items from only seven years ago, items he'd used most probably, were being referred to as artefacts.

* * *

The double doors to the Marauder's cargo hold opened, and Blakeney followed Azov into the room. As the two of them entered the hold, the Starfleet officer examined his surroundings. The room was two decks high and filled with boxes and containers of items, which were no doubt profitable to the Ferengi, and were probably illegal under Federation law. The DaiMon led Blakeney over to a table on the left of the hold. Scattered on and around the workbench were items of varying sizes, all from the _U.S.S. Titanic_. They all looked quite battered and water damaged. Numerous large items on the floor were obviously cargo containers of some description or another, no doubt salvaged from the _Titanic's_ cargo bays. Blakeney also recognised an alien case containing personal items, and it looked as if it had recently been searched. A painting was propped up against the wall next to the crate. It was of a woman wearing nothing but an elaborate necklace and a crown, who was lying on a couch. She looked almost Human, but for more elaborate ears and almost yellow skin.

Azov saw Blakeney looking at the painting and grinned; "Now that's how women ought to be. Naked!" Blakeney grimaced at the despicable little fellow, and returned his attention to the collection of artefacts. There were smaller items lying on the bench: an old style tricorder, a similarly outdated type-3 phaser rifle, a pistol, which was obviously not standard Starfleet design. There were also more personal items, quite alien looking, similar in style to the case. For example, a crown of some sort, but Blakeney noted that one of the jewels was missing from it. The computer interface on the wall behind the bench had a deck plan of the _Titanic_, pinpointing the location that the artefacts were taken from. There was also a screen showing the visual data from the probe. Blakeney moved towards the bench and picked up the alien pistol.

"This almost killed me," he said, more to himself than to Azov, but the Ferengi heard, nevertheless, and raised an eyebrow. Blakeney replaced the pistol and glanced an eye over the other items.

"Tell me, Azov," Blakeney suddenly asked, "Have you found the glor'yim yet?" Azov's eyes narrowed and glared at Blakeney, who was looking particularly smug. He had been hoping that Blakeney wouldn't have discovered what he was after. He decided, though, that that had been a mistake on his part. The _Titanic_ was after all Blakeney's ship. What else was there on board that the Ferengi could possibly have wanted?

"Where is it?" demanded Azov.

"What makes you think I know where it is?" Blakeney asked. He paused, waiting for Azov's response. There wasn't one, he simply narrowed his eyes and stared at Blakeney, who smiled and added; "I do know where I last saw it though."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter**

**2**

Blakeney looked at the images being displayed on the computer screen in the cargo bay. Azov was replaying the data from the probe, when it first entered the ocean nearly two hours ago. The Captain saw _Titanic_ suddenly appear out of the darkness, like a ghost ship. It brought back many memories of his life aboard _Titanic_. For almost six years he's been the Commanding Officer of this once proud ship. _Now look at it, _he thought to himself. It was probably fate; calling the ship _Titanic_ could only lead to this. He smiled at the irony of it. Slowly, Blakeney turned around to face Azov.

"Okay, Captain," he said, pulling up a stool, "tell me everything. I want to know exactly how the stone came to be aboard Titanic, and what happened to it after the sinking." Blakeney grabbed himself a stool and sat across the bench from Azov.

"Let's see," Blakeney began. "It all started during my mid-morning coffee with the Ship's Counsellor, Lieutenant Commander Niles Drake…"

* * *

The two of us would regularly meet in my ready room and enjoy a coffee and a chat, today was no different. As per usual, Niles had arrived at 1100 hours precisely; he was a stickler for things like that. A very habitual man. Anyway, as I was saying, he'd arrived and we'd ordered coffee from the replicator. Mine was mochaccino and, like normal, his was a mochalatte. Counsellor Drake was also one of these people who held his cup with his little finger sticking out. In fact, a lot of the things he did were very camp, like the way he was sitting now. Cross-legged, in a very feminine sort of way, holding his cup in one hand and his saucer in the other. Niles also had an annoying habit of brushing off a chair with his hand, just before he sat on it. However, he did have a crush on my Operations Officer, Lieutenant Daphne Banks, more about her later. But again, I'm detracting from the plot. Niles and I were sat on the sofa in my ready room, drinking coffee and talking about nothing in particular.

"Is something wrong?" I asked him, noticing that he was scrutinising his cup of coffee.

"Do those chocolate shavings look different to you?" he waved his cup in front of my face.

I simply said, "No,"

"Well they do to me!" he stated. "I think V'ordell must've been messing with the replicators. She's inadvertently caused them to produce inferior chocolate." I rolled my eyes at him, but he proceeded to taste them. He nodded and announced, "Waxy." I smiled to myself and sipped my own drink. Meanwhile Niles had replaced the cup in its saucer and put it on my coffee table. He was now wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin.

"So what's this I hear about Crewman Slater having an argument with Yeoman Douglas in stellar cartography?" I asked him.

"Oh yes," he seemed to perk up. "You remember that trading vessel we met up with last week?"

"The _Gleason_?" I remembered.

"That's the one," Niles nodded. "Well apparently, Crewman Slater returned from that ship with a big hairy thing, with horns and three eyes. It was assumed to be a pet. Anyway, Yeoman Douglas saw it walking down the corridor so he called security and told them that Slater's pet had escaped. Naturally she wasn't impressed."

"Why not?" I wondered.

Drake went on, "Well it turned out that that big hairy thing, with horns and three eyes, wasn't a pet. It was a date!"

I simply said, "Ah."

"Bridge to Captain Blakeney," the intercom system interrupted our conversation. The voice of my First Officer, Commander Alondra Montez, echoed into my ready room.

"What is it?" I inquired.

"There's a communication for you, sir," I was told. "It's from starbase 16."

"Thank you, Commander, I'll take it in here," I turned to Niles, who was looking intrigued, an eyebrow raised. "I'll catch you later," I told him, moving over to my desk. The Counsellor finished the last sip of his coffee and left the room.

As it turned out, the communication was from Vice-Admiral Sheldrick, a very likeable fellow with whom I shared an interest in the classical arts. I asked him what I could do for him. Sheldrick frowned, making the lines in his weathered, bearded face seem deeper than usual.

"Are you familiar with the planet Aurelius VIII?" he asked.

I leaned back in my chair. "As I recall the Aurelians have been petitioning for Federation membership, but beyond that my knowledge is sketchy at best."

"Let me fill you in on some details," Sheldrick said. "You're right, Aurelius was a hoping to join the Federation. The entire planet is ruled by an extremely powerful monarchy – that is, it was."

"'Was'?" I prodded gently.

"Last week the citizens of Aurelius rose in revolt against the government and the royal family," said Sheldrick.

"A revolution?" I asked.

Sheldrick nodded. "The revolutionaries have set up a government of their own. They want to break off all ties with the UFP. Naturally we assumed that the ruling family had been executed."

"I'm guessing that assumption was wrong," I was hopeful.

The Admiral explained, "We received a distress call from King D'soped stating that he and his daughter are currently incarcerated along with the family priest."

I didn't need Admiral Sheldrick to tell me what our orders were. "And now you want us to rescue them?" I guessed.

"That's right," Sheldrick confirmed. "You're authorised to use whatever force is necessary."

"Understood," I responded. In all honesty, I hoped that too much force wouldn't be necessary.

"I'm transmitting all pertinent data," Sheldrick said, "but I'm sorry to say, we don't have much in the way of hard information."

"If they're alive, we'll get them out," I promised.

"Good luck, Dave," Sheldrick smiled. "And godspeed."

"Thank you," I told him as his face disappeared from my screen to be replaced by the United Federation of Planets logo. I pondered the conversation we'd just had. A monarchy being overthrown by the populace? It was like something from French history not this so-called civilised era. Though history was destined to repeat itself more than once that week!

* * *

"I was on Aurelius only last month," Azov remembered. Blakeney stopped his tale and wondered what the DaiMon was on about.

"Excuse me?" he inquired.

"I said I was on Aurelius only last month," reiterated the Ferengi. "As I recall I delivered a shipment on weapons to the government."

"Republicans still having trouble with dissidents?" Blakeney noted.

"The dissident cause is weakening now though," Azov pointed out, "even though I shipped weapons to them only the week before!" Aurelius had gone downhill, Blakeney thought to himself. Ever since the loss on the monarchy it'd had government after government after government. Not one of them had managed to bring peace to the unfortunate planet. "You were saying?" Azov reminded him.

"What?" Blakeney snapped back to reality.

"You'd just been ordered to Aurelius VIII by Admiral Sheldrick," Azov helped.

"Of course," Blakeney went back to the tale. "It took us over a day to reach the planet."

"A day?" Azov interrupted. "Wasn't there a ship any closer."

"There was," Blakeney replied, "but not any capable of carrying out the mission. They were all research vessels and science ships. As I was saying…"

* * *

The following morning, as normal, I started my day with the morning briefing. Arriving a couple of minutes before the rest of my senior staff, I stood at the rear of the room and gazed out of the window. I could see the aft portion of the saucer section, and behind that the sensor pod towered over the ship. I also noted the stars as we flew past them at warp speed. Each one had its own life, its own history, and its own future. As we sped past each one we were oblivious to their adventures. We were only concerned with one star at the moment, or to be more precise, one planet, orbiting one star.

* * *

"You're waffling!" Azov pointed out.

Blakeney glared at the Ferengi. He continued his tale…

* * *

I heard the doors behind me open, so I turned around to face the conference lounge. The first person to enter was my First Officer, Commander Montez. She was a tall, very imposing female from Puerto Rico on Earth. Then came Lieutenant Banks, Chief of Operations. A Pretty young female with brown hair and a pair of green eyes. Like me, she came from England. Arriving a few steps after her came Commander Matthew Quince, the Doctor. He wore a smile under his thick white moustache. Lieutenant V'ordell, my Andorian Chief Engineer was the next to enter. She was talking with the Science Officer, Commander Joshua Snipes. A tall, brown-skinned male, with a shaven bald head and thin moustache. He had served with me aboard my first command, the _U.S.S Daring_, and had transferred across to the _Titanic_ when she was commissioned. The last officer to enter was Lieutenant Commander Vinnok. As you probably know, before his death, this Vulcan had become a close friend of mine. When I was given command of the _Warrior_ I made a request for him to be assigned as my Chief Security Officer, the same duty he was performing aboard _Titanic_. I watched the conference table fill up, then sat down at the head, tugging on my short red jacket and grey top as I did so. I must admit, that one thing I miss about those old uniforms was the Captain's uniform variation…

* * *

"Captain!" Azov interrupted.

"Hmm?" Blakeney broke off his nostalgia about the Captain's jacket.

"I really don't care about your sartorial preferences!" snapped Azov.

"Of course," Blakeney realised he'd gone off on a tangent. "I sat down at the head of the table…"

* * *

"We should enter orbit of Aurelius in about five hours," reported Banks.

"Can we expect any resistance from their space fleet?" wondered Snipes.

I'd thought the same thing, but I told him, "The military is concerned with the coup on the planet surface. In all fairness, I doubt they know whose side they're on. Getting past them shouldn't be a problem."

"So what's the plan?" Montez asked me.

"Admiral Sheldrick has sent me the believed location of the King," I explained, "down to the exact cell in the prison. Vinnok." I signalled to him to carry on.

"The away team will have to be beamed to an area outside the prison, as we suspect the jail itself will have a defensive shield protecting it," Vinnok told everyone. "It will be necessary to break into the prison in order to rescue King D'soped and his daughter."

"Breaking into the prison won't be a problem," stated V'ordell.

"Oh?" I was intrigued.

"Breaking out will be the difficult part," she said. We all smiled at her remark.

"I want the away team armed with phaser rifles," I ordered. "Alondra, you'll lead the mission. Vinnok, Josh, you'll accompany her. Take a security detachment with you."

"Yes, sir," Montez nodded.

"Captain," Banks spoke up, "what if the away team finds the royal family dead?"

"That is a distinct possibility," I admitted, hoping that it would not be the case. "Under those circumstances, get back to the ship as soon as possible. Before the rebels catch you."

"Understood," my First Officer said. I looked around the table, but no one else seemed to have anything else to add.

"Dismissed," I ordered. My senior staff got up from the table and filed out of the room.

* * *

Azov unfolded his arms and leant forward, propping himself up on the workbench.

"So when you arrived at Aurelius," he hurried the story along, "did you encounter any resistance?"

"As predicted," Blakeney replied, "we received no problems from the space fleet. We entered orbit of the planet with no incidence."

"I'm sure even if you had," Azov scoffed, "their disorganised forces and puny little ships would've caused no major problems for a Nebula-class ship! If only they had come to me. I could've got them some top quality weaponry for a very reasonable price!"

"Indeed," Blakeney's left eyebrow raised.

"So," Azov carried on, "you've entered orbit. What happened next?"

"The away team beamed down to the planet surface," explained Blakeney. "Obviously, as I was on the bridge at the time, I can't give you the exact details of the rescue. From what Alondra reported, there were no notable problems that arose. They beamed in to a site quite near the prison where King D'soped and his two fellow captives were being held. They entered the prison via the rear doors, which, luckily for them, were not guarded. Once inside they easily found the right cell, with only a couple of encounters with the rebel guards. The King, his daughter and their High Priest, were obviously extremely pleased to see the away team, who quickly took them through the winding passageways of the jail, and out they way they'd come in. In all honesty, the revolutionaries were nothing more than an unorganised rabble! Montez and the team were on the planet surface for less than two hours, but for me, up on the ship, it seemed like an eternity…"

* * *

For obvious reasons, the team on the surface could not make contact with the ship, so I had no idea what was happening on the planet below. Had they succeeded in rescuing the monarch, or had the rebel government captured them? Were they being tortured for information? Had they been executed? I knew not. This led me to pace around the bridge impatiently. Every now and then I'd return to my chair in the centre of the room. Tap my fingers on the arm. But before long I'd be on my feet again, wandering around the security station behind my seat. Along the railings that ran either side of the command area. Down the steps to conn and ops. Up the other side of the bridge and back to my chair. I was restless to say the least.

"Captain," Lieutenant Banks suddenly broke through the silence, "the away team has returned to the ship. They've got the royal party with them."

"Have them taken to sickbay for a check-up," I ordered, striding towards the turbolift at the rear of the bridge.

* * *

"With the surface crawling with uncertain rebels, why didn't you order the helmsman to plot a course out of there?" asked Azov. "Surely that would've been the sensible thing to do."

"Probably," Blakeney responded, "but no one seemed to be taking any notice of _Titanic_ so, for the moment, it was safe to stay put. Besides, I hoped the King might have known the location of other imprisoned Royalists whom we could rescue while we were there…"

* * *

As I entered sickbay, I saw Montez, Vinnok and Snipes standing in the corner, still armed with their phaser rifles. Doctor Quince was standing next to the main bio-bed, running a medical tricorder over someone. Three Aurelians were present. As you know, Aurelians look almost identical to Humans, the only difference being their ears. Aurelian ears are slightly larger and have three points at the top. There is also a yellowish tinge to their skin. King D'soped stood to Quince's right. A plumpish man of about seventy Earth years. He had tufts of white hair around his ears but other than that he was bald. Bushy white sideburns connected to his moustache, and he had another little tuft of hair under his bottom lip. His clothes were battered and torn, but still were once regal. Lying on the bio-bed being examined, was his daughter, the Princess. She was in her early twenties I'd guess, with bright blue eyes and long flowing red hair. Her slender body was clad in rich clothes, but these, like her fathers, showed the effects of her imprisonment. Finally, to Quince's left, stood a tall, thin male, whom I assumed was the High Priest. He had a thin black goatee and penetrating eyes. Unlike D'soped and his daughter's garments, the Priest's long flowing robes didn't show any signs of wear and tear.

"Your Majesty," I introduced myself, "I'm Captain David Blakeney, _U.S.S. Titanic_. I'm glad to see that you're well."

"Thank you, Captain," the ageing King smiled. "I thank you with all my heart. Without you I don't care to think what would have happened to us." He suddenly seemed to remember that I was unfamiliar with his companions. "Let me introduce you. This is my daughter and heir, Y'trepp."

"It's a pleasure, Princess," I smiled at the young lady. She smiled back.

"And this is Niaga Tsal," D'soped continued, "the High Priest."

"Charmed," Tsal said to me. I extended my hand for him to shake. There was something about him I didn't like, but the King obviously trusted him.

"Doctor?" I turned to Quince and waited for his report on the Aurelians' health.

"They're all in perfect health," the CMO told me, "considering what's happened to them over the last few days."

"I'm pleased to hear that," I said. "I trust the revolutionaries didn't mistreat you."

"No," the Princess shook her head, "we were very fortunate compared to how they treated our council."

"Captain," King D'soped interrupted, "are we still in orbit of Aurelius?"

"We are, your majesty," I nodded.

"Excellent!" he smiled with a look of relief. "In that case can we return to your teleporter room?"

I motioned him towards the door. His daughter and Tsal followed him, and I signalled for Vinnok to join us. "Can I take it you want to beam up members of your council, or royalist supporters?"

"Unfortunately not, Captain," D'soped replied, as we walked down the corridor towards a turbolift, "I'm afraid that my council and most of my closest supporters have all been executed." As you can imagine I was deeply disappointed by this news. Though it made me wonder why these three Aurelians that we had rescued were not already dead. Surely if the revolutionaries were intent on killing the ruling class they would've executed the Royal Family as soon as possible. Perhaps the rebels were not as extreme as we believed. It was possible that they were still slightly afraid of the power of the monarchy. As we reached the doors to the turbolift I pushed the keypad, but something was puzzling me.

It was obviously puzzling Vinnok as well, because he inquired, "May I ask what it is you wish to beam aboard?" The turbolift arrived and we all boarded it. I told the computer to take us to deck 6.

"There are some personal items on the surface which we need to bring aboard," D'soped explained.

"Personal items?" I repeated through gritted teeth.

"Do not question his Majesty, Captain," High Priest Tsal warned me. I did note that the Princess rolled her eyes at the Priest's outburst. This brought a small smile to my lips.

"How do you intend to locate these 'personal items'?" Vinnok wanted to know. By now the turbolift had come to a stop and we stepped off into the corridor.

"The crate they're in has a homing device built into it," D'soped explained as we entered transporter room 3. "Just in case of emergencies like this."

"If you'd like to give the frequency to the Transporter Chief," I motioned the King towards the transporter console. He went over and almost pushed Chief Petty Officer Lloyd out of the way. He entered data into the panel.

"There," he announced. The Transporter Chief moved back to her console and tried to home in on the signal.

"I have a transporter lock, Captain," she reported.

"Scan for signs of any dangerous or hazardous items," I told Lloyd.

"Scanners can't detect anything, other than the shape of the object," she reported. "I would guess that whatever it is, is in a box of some sort that is shielding the scanners."

"I assure you, Captain," D'soped stated, "that box contains nothing that will pose a threat to you or your crew." Vinnok looked at me and raised an eyebrow. D'soped went on, "You are our only chance to escape, Captain. Why would we jeopardise that?" I reasoned that, for the moment, we had no reason to doubt him. His argument was certainly sound.

"Energise," I ordered Lloyd. Within seconds, an alien looking crate appeared in the transporter alcove. It was about waist height and richly decorated. I noticed that Tsal smiled to himself.

"Excellent!" he grinned.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter**

**3**

Not long later I was still looking at that crate, only now it was on my desk in the ready room. By now the _Titanic_ had left orbit of Aurelius VIII and we were on our way to starbase 16, where King D'soped and his party were to depart.

"May I ask what this chest contains that was so important to retrieve?" I asked. King D'soped was seated in one of the chairs in front of my desk. High Priest Tsal was standing to his right, and the Princess was sitting on my sofa. Commander Vinnok was stood near the window.

"Amongst other things, Captain," the King told me, "it contains my coronation jewellery." I looked across at Vinnok; he was looking, within the confines of his Vulcan disciplines, almost as appalled as I was. The King hadn't even bothered to try and rescue any of his council, supporters, friends or family, but he had rescued his crown jewels. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as it seemed. The High Priest opened the box and D'soped stood up and began looking through it's contents. From where I was sitting I couldn't see inside, but he soon produced what looked like a crown, which he placed on my desk. He then pulled out a large necklace and put it next to the crown. Both the items were made out of moulded Gold Pressed Latinum, and both were embedded with rich jewels. The main focus though, on both items, was a large black jewel, which I didn't recognise.

"Are you familiar with glor'yim?" D'soped asked me.

"I'm afraid I'm not," I told him. "Vinnok?" The Vulcan shook his head.

"Tsal," the King looked up at the Priest, motioning for him to explain.

"Some two hundred years ago" Tsal began, "we discovered a moon in the Hebitian system. Since the Hebitian system has been extinct for centuries, we claimed ownership of the moon. When we began mining, a new gem was discovered."

"Glor'yim?" I guessed.

"Correct," the High Priest nodded. "It was found to have properties similar to dilithium, but vastly superior. Our scientists saw in it unlimited potential, certainly with regard to propulsion capabilities, but also when it came to weapons design."

Vinnok raised an eyebrow, "Weapons design?"

Tsal continued, "Glor'yim had the power to destroy an entire planet with just one shot, causing a shockwave that would destroy all the other planets in that solar system. Naturally, this worried many people, and one of my predecessors took it upon himself to destroy the Hebitian moon, thereby preventing the glor'yim from being mined. The only other existing source was the sample held by the scientists. This was subsequently cut into two pieces and embedded in the crown jewels." I picked up the glor'yim encrusted crown.

"You're looking at the only remaining glor'yim in the universe," smiled D'soped.

"I see now why you needed to get this off the planet," I said.

"We couldn't risk letting it fall into the hands of the revolutionaries." D'soped agreed.

"If you ask me," Princess Y'trepp spoke up, "those two pieces should be destroyed as well."

"I'm beginning to think you're right," D'soped replaced his crown jewels and closed the crate. I noted that Tsal was narrowing his eyes and glaring at Y'trepp. He obviously didn't agree.

* * *

"Well I don't blame him," Azov stated. "That jewel is worth more than all the Gold Pressed Latinum in this quadrant."

"And I assume that's why you're looking for it," Blakeney wasn't impressed.

"You didn't think I wanted to make a brooch with it did you?" scoffed Azov.

"And exactly who do you plan to sell it to?" demanded Blakeney. "The remnants of the Cardassian Empire? The Gezogen? How about the Borg?"

"Don't be stupid!" snapped Azov. "Do you think I don't know what would happen if I let any of them get it?"

"Whoever gets their hands on it will use it for exactly the same thing," Blakeney knew. "Destruction!"

"To each his own, Captain," smiled Azov. Blakeney raised his eyebrows and was about to give the Ferengi a mouthful but he raised his hands and stopped him. "My client has no interest in making a weapon."

"Really?" Blakeney was sceptical.

"Really," Azov said. "Apparently he's interested in developing a more efficient propulsion system."

"Very well then," Blakeney still wasn't convinced, "but I doubt you'll find the glor'yim." He more than doubted, he was certain he wouldn't find it.

"So, where were we?" Azov pushed on.

Blakeney thought where he'd left off; "The conversation in my ready room was just about over, so the next priority was to assign them some quarters…"

* * *

I escorted them from my ready room and onto the bridge. We left the chest on my desk and I said it would be taken to their quarters as soon as they'd been assigned some. Vinnok returned to the tactical station behind the Captain's chair and I turned to the science station.

"Josh," I attracted the attention of Commander Snipes.

"Yes, Captain," he got up from his seat and came over to where we were standing.

"Would you take King D'soped and his party to the VIP accommodation," I asked him.

"Certainly," Josh motioned towards the forward turbolift, next to the entrance to the ready room. "If you'd like to follow me." He entered the lift followed by the Princess, D'soped, then Tsal. The doors to the turbolift closed and I returned to my ready room.

* * *

"You're more stupid than I originally thought," Azov suddenly said.

"I beg your pardon?" Blakeney was slightly taken aback.

"You went back into your ready room," Azov explained to him, "which contained the chest with the crown jewels."  
"I Think I see what's coming next," smiled Blakeney.

"You had the perfect opportunity to take the glor'yim from the jewels," Azov gasped.

"Don't you think D'soped would've noticed," Blakeney pointed out the obvious.

"You could easily have replicated a copy," stated Azov. "Nobody would've known the difference."

"True," replied Blakeney, "but even if I'd wanted to, the crate was locked. To get inside I would've had to break it open. Somebody would have noticed that." Azov realised he was right, so he invited him to carry on with the tale. Blakeney did so, "From what I gathered, it was Commander Snipes who broke the Princess out of her cell, so they had already been introduced to each other…"

* * *

Josh Snipes exited the quarters where he'd just dropped King D'soped. High Priest Tsal had already been assigned quarters so now all he had to do was show Princess Y'trepp to her VIP stateroom.

"So, Commander Snipes," Y'trepp smiled at him.

"Josh," he told her.

"Okay, Josh," she smiled, "what exactly do you do on this ship?"

"I'm third in command," Josh was proud. "I'm also the Chief Science Officer."

"Impressive," the Princess said.

"Not as impressive as being heir to the throne of an entire planet," retorted Snipes.

"A planet I'll probably never see again," Y'trepp was obviously upset about that. Snipes didn't know what to say because he knew she was probably right. "What's going to happen to me, Josh?"

"You'll depart _Titanic_ at starbase 16," the Commander told her. "It'll be up to you and your father. You can go to any planet you want in the Federation. Personally, I'd suggest Earth, but there are hundreds of others to chose from." The two of them arrived at the doors to another set of VIP quarters. "Here we are then," Josh escorted the Princess inside. "Being a Princess I'm sure they're not what you're used to." Y'trepp smiled. He was right. But she put on a brave face.

"Compared to what I've been living in for the last few days they're luxurious," she stated.

"Your food replicator's over there," Josh pointed to the wall on the right where the replicator stood. "Bedroom and bathroom are through there," he pointed to the doorway in the opposite wall. "If you need anything, give me call."

"Thank you," Y'trepp looked out of the windows. She could see the reflection of Commander Snipes about to leave. "Josh," she spun around, "do you have any plans this evening?"

"None as yet," smiled Snipes.

Y'trepp suggested, "How about inviting a girl for a drink," The two of them smiled at each other.

* * *

"Wait a minute," Azov stopped the story yet again. "You weren't there at this point, so how do you know all this was happening?"

"Josh told me most if it," responded Blakeney, "and Princess Y'trepp told me the rest."

"Is it relevant to the story though, Captain?" Azov didn't like irrelevancies, especially when they got in the way of profit.

"Of course it is," Blakeney shrugged. "Anyway, evening came and Mister Snipes collected the Princess from her quarters. The two of them went to the Ten-Forward lounge…"

* * *

By now Princess Y'trepp had replicated herself some new outfits and was wearing one of these new dresses now. Commander Snipes, who was off duty, was dressed in smart/casual civilian clothes. They walked through one of the sets of doors to the lounge and went straight to the bar. Snipes looked around. There was only a handful of people in there at the moment: some of them off-duty Officers and crew, others were civilians, so there were plenty of free tables.

"Mister Snipes," a voice from behind the bar said. It was the barman. A Bolian called M'kat. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your young lady friend?" he asked. Being a Bolian meant M'kat was ideally suited to a life behind the bar. Very sociable, to put it politely. Talkative and nosy to be blunt.

"Of course," Snipes politely responded, "Princess Y'trepp, this is Mister M'kat, our barman."

"Princess Y'trepp," smiled M'kat, "of course. I heard about your escape from Aurelius. I was ever so sorry to hear about your incarceration by those evil revolutionaries. It must be terrible to lose your thrown to rebels, not that I'd know, of course, having never had a thrown myself."

"Thank you," Y'trepp wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"So what can I get you?" M'kat inquired.

"We'd like a bottle of champagne please," Snipes ordered.

"All right then," M'kat grinned, "if you'd like to get a table I'll bring your drink over."

"Thanks, M'kat," smiled Snipes. He led Y'trepp over to a two-person table by the windows. Since Ten-Forward was at the very front of the ship's saucer, it had a brilliant view of the starscape ahead.

"Beautiful," the Princess was in awe of the magnificent view. Turning to Snipes she said, "Do you realise I've never left Aurelius before now? This is the first time I've been into space."

"And?" Snipes wondered.

"And I've been missing out," finished Y'trepp.

"Here we are," M'kat arrived. He placed the bottle of champagne, which was in an ice bucket, in the centre of the table. Removing the bottle from the bucket he poured some into each of the two glasses he was holding then replaced the bottle. He put the glasses either side of it.

"Thank you, Mister M'kat," Snipes thanked the Bolian.

"Can I get you anything else?" M'kat asked.

"No thank you," Snipes shook his head, and looked up at M'kat, who eventually walked off. Josh picked up his glass and raised it in a toast. The Princess picked up her own glass and chinked it against his. As they sipped their drinks, they both stared into each other's eyes.

"I like it," decided Y'trepp, looking at the liquid in her glass. "What did you say it was called?"

"Champagne," Snipes told her. The two of them just looked at each other for a moment, before the Commander finally asked, "So how are you holding up?"

"Not too badly," the Princess told him. Snipes could see that she wanted to talk about it so he kept quiet and let her carry on in her own time. "You know," she said, "I never really wanted to be Queen."

"Really?" Josh was surprised.

Y'trepp explained, "It's what I've been trained for all my life, but I never really wanted it. Unfortunately, being an only child meant I couldn't pass on the succession to a sibling." She turned to look out of the windows. All her life she'd felt trapped and now, after this tragedy on her homeworld, she had finally got her wish. "Maybe the revolution is a blessing in disguise?" The Princess's hand was on the table, so Snipes put his hand onto hers and held it tightly. She was appreciative of the gesture and held his hand back. "At least one good thing will come of this," Y'trepp grinned. "I won't have to go through with my arranged marriage." Snipes was glad that the Princess was trying to find some humour in her situation.

"Arranged marriage?" he was curious, to say the least.

"It was arranged for me last year," she told him. "He was a distant relative of High Priest Tsal's, in fact."

"How appalling for you," laughed Snipes. Y'trepp laughed too. She raised her glass.

"Here's to the future," she toasted.

Josh joined her in the toast; "The future."


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter**

**4**

"This is all very fascinating, Captain, "Azov yawned, "But what does their love affair have to do with the glor'yim?"

"I assure you, DaiMon," Blakeney replied, "everything I'm telling you is relevant. Now do you want to know where the stones ended up?"

"Do carry on," invited Azov.

Blakeney carried on, "The following morning, with still more than a day and a half until our arrival at starbase 16, the Princess decided she wanted a tour of _Titanic_…"

* * *

Commander Snipes was in his quarters. I'm actually something of an amateur artist, and while Josh and I were on the _Daring_ I'd got him interested in art. In fact he became a rather brilliant fine artist, and it was art he was indulging in on this particular morning. He was standing at his easel, which was positioned by his dining table. On the table itself were pots of paints and a jug of water. Also on the table was the composition he was drawing: a collection of loose flowing ribbons draped around a rigid coil spanner. In one hand Snipes held his pallet, the other hand was gripping the paintbrush, and was sweeping across the canvas in front of him. He was getting slightly infuriated because he couldn't quite get the shading right on the ribbon. _Beep-beep boop-boop_. The door chime to his quarters broke his concentration and brought him back to reality.

"Come in," he looked around his easel towards the door. He smiled as soon as he saw Princess Y'trepp walk in. "Hi," he greeted.

"Morning," the Princess replied.

"Can I get you anything?" Snipes pointed to the replicator.

"No thank you," she shook her head "but I would like to thank you for last night."

"That's all right," Josh put the paintbrush and pallet down.

"I think I just needed someone to talk to," explained Y'trepp.

"You know I'm here for you," said Snipes. After the two of them exchanged smiles, the Princess noticed Josh's painting.

"What's this?" her curiosity was piqued.

"Oh," Josh was slightly embarrassed, "it's, er, it's just a hobby of mine."

"Really?" Y'trepp was impressed. "It's pretty good." She looked closely at the unfinished painting. "It's very good, in fact."

"Thank you," blushed Snipes. The Princess looked around the quarters. There were other pieces of art hung on the walls.

"Are these yours also?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact they are, yes," Snipes stated proudly.

"Well, well," the Princess was impressed, "you have a talent, Josh. Really, you do."

"A talent I only discovered a few years back," Snipes told her, "after Captain Blakeney got me interested in it."

"Well, I'm glad he did," Y'trepp grinned. She watched as Snipes wiped his hands on a towel and sat down on his sofa. He motioned for her to join him. "Did I tell you about the painting that was supposed to be done of me?" she asked.

"No," Snipes shook his head.

"Another thing I wasn't looking forward to upon my ascension to the throne," expounded Y'trepp. "We had a long hallway in our main palace, containing a portrait of all the monarchs that ever reigned. Every portrait shows the King or Queen in the coronation jewellery, wearing their coronation robes and looking like a porcelain doll!" Snipes smirked. "I always said," the Princess went on, "that when I came to power, I would make my portrait different to the others, somehow."

"You could always commission me to paint your portrait," suggested Snipes.

"I may just take you up on that, Mister Snipes," laughed Y'trepp. Snipes also laughed and stared into the Princess' bright blue eyes. He felt amazingly attracted to this woman, and I know for a fact that she was attracted to him.

"Are you sure I can't get you anything?" asked Snipes again.

"Well now you come to mention it," Y'trepp decided, "I wouldn't mind a tour of this ship."

Snipes got up and grabbed his uniform top. "No problem."

* * *

"Don't worry," decided Blakeney, "I won't describe the entire tour."

"Thank the Nagus!" Azov sighed.

"As a matter of fact," explained the Captain, "I only know a small amount about their trip around the ship."

"Didn't they tell you?" Azov was sarcastic. "You seem to know everything else about their personal lives!"

"As I said," defended Blakeney, "Josh was a close friend. Now where was I? Ah yes, I only know the details from two of the stops on their tour. One of them because I was there. I was in main engineering talking with Lieutenant V'ordell. She had a suggestion, which she thought would increase our engine efficiency. And in case you were wondering, I'd changed back into my standard duty uniform now." Blakeney grinned at Azov, who slammed his head into his hands with an exasperated look on his face.

"Captain, we've already discussed that your uniforms are not a vital element to the glor'yim," stated Azov through gritted teeth.

"I know," Blakeney retorted. "I just wanted to see if you were still listening!" Azov shook his head. Blakeney carried on, "I'd been stood in V'ordell's office in engineering for almost fifteen minutes listening to how she hoped to get the warp core efficiency up by 2 percent…"

* * *

"That sounds very promising, Lieutenant," I told her. "Carry out a simulation and if all works out, we'll try it on the actual engines."

"Yes, Captain," nodded V'ordell. "If possible, I'd like Lieutenant Banks to assist me with the simulations."

"That shouldn't be a problem," I decided, "I'll send her down here when I get back to the bridge." As I made to leave, I added, "Oh, and by the way, it is a dress dinner tonight." I felt her cringe as I left the office. The dinner was due to be held in my private dining room in honour of our royal guests. Walking through engineering, I saw Commander Snipes entering. He was escorting Princess Y'trepp on his left arm.

"This is main engineering," he was telling her, "the heart of the vessel."

"Josh," I smiled at my old friend, "giving the Princess the official tour?"

"Something like that," he smiled back.

"You have an amazing ship here, Captain," Y'trepp told me. "Our space fleet has nothing that compares to the enormity of this."

"Thank you," I was touched by her compliment.

"I'm not sure whether I properly thanked your crew for rescuing us, Captain," the Princess realised.

"I'll pass on your thanks, Princess," I assured her. "I'm just glad we got you out of there in time."

"Bridge to Captain Blakeney," Counsellor Drake's voice echoed throughout the engine room.

"Yes, what is it, Niles?" I knew exactly what he wanted.

"It's 11:03, Dave," Drake informed me. "I'm sure we usually have coffee at 11:00."

"I'm on my way," I replied. "Blakeney out." Turning to the Princess I excused myself. "I hope I'll see you later."

"You certainly will, Captain," she let me know. As soon as I'd gone she turned to Josh, "Who is Niles?"

"Ship's Counsellor," responded Snipes. "You know I sometimes think he could do with seeing a Counsellor himself! He needs to chill!" The Princess laughed. Snipes went on. "This is the warp core," he pointed at the huge, glowing centrepiece of the engine room. "In that chamber are the dilithium crystals, which power the matter/anti-matter reaction."

"Hello there," Lieutenant V'ordell saw them and came out of her office to greet them.

"Hi, V'ordell," Snipes turned to face the Andorian. Realising that the Princess had not met the Lieutenant, he introduced them, "Princess Y'trepp, this is Lieutenant V'ordell, _Titanic's_ Chief Engineer."

"It's a pleasure," Y'trepp smiled.

"The pleasure's all mine," V'ordell bowed her head. "What do you think of my engine room?"

"It's as impressive as the rest of this marvellous ship," The Princess was still in awe of the _Titanic_. "It's hard to imagine the amount of power inside that engine core."

"I know exactly what you mean," V'ordell agreed.

"Well," Snipes sighed, "I suppose we'd better be moving on."

"I think you're right," the Princess concurred, "there's still a lot more I want to see."

"We'll see you tonight," Josh said to V'ordell as he left engineering with the Princess.

* * *

"This story better get more interesting soon, Blakeney," Azov warned, "because at the moment it's just two love-birds who haven't even got together yet, roaming around the starship!"

"If you'd stop interrupting me," snapped Blakeney, "then it may get 'more interesting'. Of course, If you're bored then I could always stop."

"Don't you dare!" Azov quickly said.

"All right," Blakeney tugged on his uniform jacket and continued, "An hour or so later, Commander Snipes and the Princess arrived at the final destination of the tour…"

* * *

The two of them were now in the sensor pod that towered proudly over the rest of the ship. Snipes had just finished showing Y'trepp around the sensor suites and they were now departing the torpedo bay. The corridors in the pod were slightly more cramped than those found in the rest of the ship.

"This is the standard pod that these vessels are equipped with," explained Snipes, "but they can be customised for different mission, making the Nebula-class a lot more mission specific than most Starfleet ships."

"Aurelius has been in contact with the Federation for decades," the Princess thought out loud, "but this is the first time I've ever been on board a Starfleet vessel. In fact you were the first Human I'd ever met."

"Really?" Josh was surprised. "I hope I didn't disappoint you."

"Not at all," flirted Y'trepp. The two of them entered a small room, containing very little. Only a few consoles lined the walls, with a freestanding station in the centre of the room. "Where are we now?" inquired the Princess.

"I want to show you something," Snipes told her. He tapped a control panel and a hatchway in the wall slid back. The opening it revealed led to the void of space outside. Below them was the enormous saucer section of the _Titanic_, and ahead of them, was open space. The millions of stars appeared as tiny, shimmering lights in the empty blackness of space. Many of them were elongated due to the distortion of travelling at warp speed. The two of them knew that the only thing preventing the air, and themselves, from escaping out of the portal, was a forcefield across the opening.

"What a magnificent view," exclaimed Y'trepp. "Even with all the power my family had, we couldn't have had anything as beautiful as this."

"Two days ago, I couldn't imagine seeing anything as beautiful as you," stated Snipes. The Princess smiled and looked down in a bashful manner. _Was she blushing? _Snipes wondered.

"Two days ago," Y'trepp said, "I was sitting in a prison cell waiting to die. Now I'm here with you. A man like no other I've met before." Now it was Josh's turned to blush.

"You know," he told her, "I've never been attracted to royalty before. How exactly does one go about trying to win the heart of a Princess?" The two moved closer together.

"I'd say you're doing pretty well," Y'trepp responded, her nose now almost touched his. Acting on impulse, Josh kissed the Princess. He felt her kiss him back, and before long, the two were locked in a passionate embrace.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter**

**5**

That evening we all sat around the dining table in the Captain's mess, a suite dedicated to entertaining VIP guests. The room itself was quite long, with a row of windows along one wall. The main focus of the room, of course, was the wooden dining table. I was at one end of it. On my right, was Commander Montez, next to her was Mister Vinnok, then Lieutenant V'ordell, followed by Josh and the Princess. The King sat opposite me at the other end of the table, and coming back down the other side sat High Priest Tsal, Doctor Quince, Lieutenant Banks and Counsellor Drake. All of us Starfleet Officers were clad in our dress uniforms, and every now and then I could see someone tugging uncomfortably at theirs. I'd asked Mister M'kat if I could borrow two of his staff to wait on the table. They were stood, one at either end of the room. By now, we'd finished our starters of soup, had polished off the fish course, and were now tucking into our main course.

"…So anyway," King D'soped was telling us of how he came to be incarcerated, "when I heard about the outbreak of the revolution, I decided it would be best to get out of the capital city. I hid the box containing the crown jewels in a secret compartment in my study. High Priest Tsal then arranged for some transport out of the palace for my daughter and myself. The two of us left our home for the last time!"

"It must've been hard for you," Montez sympathised.

"Not as hard as what happened next," continued D'soped. "As we were leaving the city, we thought we'd escaped, but it was not so."

"The revolutionaries ambushed you?" guessed V'ordell, taking a sip of her drink.

"That's right," the King nodded. "They killed the monk driving our transport and took Y'trepp and I back to the capital in chains."

"Over the next few hours we were forced to watch as our council were all executed," the Princess put in. "Then, over the next couple of days, hundreds of our supporters and friends all suffered the same fate."

"But in that time you managed to get your hands on a transmitter and sent a message to the Federation," Snipes stated.

"Yes," the King swallowed a mouthful of food and proceeded. "High Priest Tsal here was brought into the prison the day after us. He managed to sneak in a communications unit, which is what we used to contact you."

"Resulting in our subsequent rescue," the High Priest finished.

"Not a moment too soon, it would seem!" added Niles.

"Indeed," Tsal turned to the Counsellor.

"I'm curious," Vinnok spoke up. "What do you intend to do with the glor'yim?"

"I hadn't really thought about it, Mister Vulcan," the King admitted.

"Glor'yim?" Doctor Quince was unfamiliar with it.

"It's a mineral found on only one moon in the Hebitian sector," Banks knew.

"That is correct, Lieutenant," commended Vinnok.

"But I thought that moon and all the glor'yim was destroyed centuries ago," Banks was confused.

"It was," I told her.

"Oh?" she was even more confused.

"Except for one stone of it," I elaborated, "which now sits in the Aurelian crown jewels." Daphne nodded. It was all clear.

"Glor'yim can also be used as an extremely powerful weapon source," the Princess sounded angry.

"Oh, I see," Banks saw the implications.

"Which brings me back to my original inquiry," stated Vinnok. "Do you not think it would be logical to destroy the last remaining glor'yim fragments?"

"You would ask the King to defile his royal heritage?" Tsal growled.

"I would ask the King to prevent the glor'yim from being turned into a weapon of mass destruction," responded Vinnok.

"I will not listen to this treason!" snapped Tsal.

"Niaga," the King put his hand up to calm the High Priest. He then leant back in his chair and sighed. Tsal was obviously not happy, but he relaxed and carried on with his meal.

"So," Doctor Quince quickly moved the conversation along, "do you know what you'll do after we drop you at starbase 16?"

The poor King shook his head, "I'd hope one day to return to Aurelius. Once the revolution is over. Even if they don't welcome me back as King, I'd like to see my homeworld again." Y'trepp placed her hand on her father's arm. He smiled and put his hand on hers. "Oh, my child," he sighed. "It's you I feel sorry for. My life is almost over, but yours, yours is just beginning."

"I'll be fine, Father," the Princess smiled. "Don't worry."

"If only I knew there'd be someone to look after you after I'm gone," D'soped said.

"I can take care of myself," she told him. "I'm not a child anymore."

"Perhaps you're right," he agreed. The rest of us watched this touching moment in silence. I was relieved when the King perked up and giggled. "Maybe you'll find a nice man, eh," he nudged her. "Someone who'll make you happy." Y'trepp looked at Snipes, and the two of them grinned. I assumed that she hadn't yet told her father of the romance.

* * *

We all finished our main course and each had a helping of dessert, followed by cheese and biscuits, and coffee. The conversation had moved on from the revolution on Aurelius and the powerful glor'yim. We spoke of other, more light-hearted subjects. Stories of Starfleet Academy, adventures from other starships we'd all served on and, of course, neurotic tales from Niles.

"So we decided to follow Commander Crane's short-cut," the Counsellor was saying. "Well that was the last time we took his advice because we ended up going through a tear in the space/time continuum and wound up in ancient Pompeii!"

"I don't see the problem," Y'trepp said. "You escaped didn't you?"

"Yes," Niles agreed, "but my brand new Andorian loafers were singed beyond recognition!" The table broke out into a burst of friendly laughter.

"Well, Captain," King D'soped placed his napkin on the table, "I thank you very much for this pleasant evening."

"Would you care to join me in a brandy in the lounge, your Majesty?" I offered.

"An excellent suggestion," he rubbed his hands together. I knew he had no idea what brandy was, but he seemed very keen to try it. "The rest of you are welcome to join us," I told my officers. They were all very grateful, but eventually only High Priest Tsal, Doctor Quince and Counsellor Drake joined us. We left the dining room.

"Well," the Princess yawned, "I think it's time to return to my stateroom."

"Allow me to walk you there," Snipes offered.

"I'd love you to," she smiled, and the two left, arm in arm.

* * *

The turbolift doors opened. Commander Snipes allowed the Princess to depart first and then followed her into the corridor. She waited for him to catch up, then linked arms with him. As they walked down the hallway, Y'trepp was looking up at Josh and smiling.

"What?" he asked in a friendly manner.

"Nothing," she replied coyly. "I'm just looking."

"And?" wondered Snipes.

"I can see a very attractive young man," tittered Y'trepp. They reached the entrance to her VIP quarters. Opening the door, she turned to Commander Snipes. "Won't you come in for a bit?" she invited. She slipped inside the stateroom and Snipes followed her. As the doors whooshed close behind him, she grabbed him and pulled him towards her. She pressed her lips against his and a passionate kiss ensued.

"Josh you're unlike anyone I've ever met before," she said. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders, while his were on her hips.

"I feel exactly the same," responded Snipes. "I've never been this attracted to anyone before." The two lovers stared into each other's eyes. They both knew they'd fallen in love.

"Remember that portrait we spoke of?" asked Y'trepp. Snipes nodded and the Princess went on, "I want you to paint me, Josh. Wearing the coronation jewels."

"Sure," smiled Snipes.

Y'trepp shyly looked down, then gazed into Josh's dark brown eyes. "Wearing only the coronation jewels!"

* * *

"So this must be Princess Y'trepp," Azov got off his stool and went over to the painting Blakeney had noticed earlier, propped up against the cargo bay wall. The DaiMon picked it up and brought it over to the workbench.

"That's her," Blakeney confirmed.

Azov examined the picture with his beady eyes and stated, "Nice brushwork!" Blakeney looked at the face in the drawing. She was so cheerful and happy. Blakeney had met her again five years ago, when she had been leading a ban of Royalist soldiers attempting to retake her throne. A vain attempt, alas. She had seemed wearier then. More hardened. Not the carefree soul he had known on _Titanic_. Returning to the picture, he moved down the page and found the signature.

"Josh," he muttered under his breath. He remembered the first meeting between the then Lieutenant Commander Snipes, and himself, the new First Officer of the _U.S.S. Daring_. Their friendship had lasted sixteen years, until… Blakeney sighed.

"Where had I got to?" he asked himself.

Azov answered, "Princess Y'trepp has just asked Josh to paint her,"

"That's right," Blakeney clicked his fingers, "she has. The two of them prepared for the work of art…"

* * *

Mister Snipes returned to his quarters, where he discarded his dress jacket and collected up some equipment: His easel, a clean canvas, a box of paints etc. Meanwhile, the Princess crept into her father's quarters and took the coronation crown and necklace from the crate. The King wasn't in his quarters, of course, because he was in the lounge with me having a brandy. Before long they were both back in Y'trepp's quarters. Josh set up his easel in the lounge area, facing the windows, whilst Princess Y'trepp was in the bedroom. She had changed into a dressing gown and was now standing in front of the mirror sorting out her hair. The elaborate necklace was already draped over her shoulders under the dressing gown, and she now placed the crown atop her head. She was ready. Josh Snipes looked up from where he was putting paint out onto his pallet, and saw Y'trepp, seductively walking out of the bedroom, wearing only a flowing, thin dressing gown, and of course, the jewels.

"Ready," she challenged.

"Whenever you are," he retorted.

"Then let's do this," she smiled. Slowly, she opened the dressing gown. It slid off her shoulders and fell to the floor. She stood there, naked, with only the cold jewels on her flesh. Snipes blushed. She had an amazing body. "Where do you want me?" wondered Y'trepp.

"The bed," stuttered Snipes. "Er, the couch. Over on the couch." The nude Princess slowly made her way over to the sofa, then slowly and seductively, draped herself onto it.

"Tell me when it looks right," said Y'trepp.

"It looks perfect to me," Snipes quickly stated.

"I believe you're blushing, Mister artist," grinned Y'trepp. Snipes suddenly realised his embarrassment and snapped into professional mode.

"All right," he said, positioning himself behind the easel, "hold that pose, and try to remain still." The artist began drawing the picture. A rough outline to start with, measuring every inch of her body to get the dimensions right. Then he began applying the paint to the paper. The two of them exchanged flirtatious glances throughout the entire process. In fact, the Princess told me that it was the most erotic experience of her life. Till then, at least. In an hour or so, the painting was complete. Snipes picked up the dressing gown and held it up for Y'trepp to slip into.

"Thank you," she said to Josh, after taking a look at her portrait.

"It's a shame you can't hang it in the portrait gallery of your palace!" quipped Snipes. He put his arms around the Princess and the two of them kissed. Y'trepp then moved away from Snipes, grabbed his hand, and pulled him towards the bedroom.

* * *

"Go on," Azov grinned, "What happened next?"

"I'm sure you can imagine the details!" Blakeney raised an eyebrow, and Azov grinned lecherously. The glint in his eye told Blakeney that the Ferengi was indeed imagining what the two lovers had done.

"Shall we move on?" Blakeney prodded.

"Don't tell me! I suppose they lived happily ever after?" Azov couldn't stand clichés, especially romantic ones. Blakeney wondered whether this was because Azov himself had little chance of living happily ever after, especially in the romantic sense.

"Unfortunately," corrected Blakeney, "no they didn't."

"Oh well," Azov shrugged. "These things happen. There are more important things in life – like profit!" Blakeney was disgusted, but Azov continued, "You were saying."

The Starfleet Captain took a deep breath and went on, "The next morning, as per usual, the computer woke me up at 0600 hours..."

* * *

I climbed out of bed, little realising that I would never sleep in it ever again. Pulling on my dressing gown and slippers, I made my way over to the replicator in my quarters.

"Vulcan Spice Tea. Hot," I ordered. A drink Commander Vinnok had introduced me to. Within seconds my beverage had materialised and I was holding the cup, sniffing the strong aroma. Yawning, I seated myself in one of the armchairs, and proceeded to drink my tea. We were due to arrive at starbase 16 that afternoon, so I was anticipating a fairly problem free day. I should have known that this wasn't to be, the moment I heard the intercom beep.

"Captain Blakeney," Vinnok's voice resounded.

"What is it, Vinnok?" I asked.

"I am in one of the VIP suites, sir," he told me. "Would you please join me."

"Is there a problem, Commander?" I inquired.

Vinnok let me know, in his unemotional Vulcan tones, "King D'soped has been murdered."


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter**

**6**

Azov clicked his fingers. "The glor'yim! It's obvious! Why else would anyone want to murder a deposed King?"

"That was exactly the conclusion I jumped to," Blakeney told him. "Mister Vinnok concurred…"

* * *

After receiving the call from Vinnok, I quickly pulled on my uniform and made my way to King D'soped's assigned quarters. Before long I was walking down the corridor towards the stateroom. I noted two security guards flanking the doors, which were open. Upon entering the rooms I saw King D'soped's body lying on the floor. The glass coffee table had been smashed and shards were littering the floor. Numerous personnel were in the quarters, each performing different tasks. Doctor Quince and a Bajoran nurse were kneeling by the corpse, medical instruments in hand. Vinnok, and another couple of security officers, were scouring the quarters with tricorders. The Security Chief saw my entrance and approached me.

"Report," I ordered.

"I received a communication from High Priest Tsal," explained Vinnok. "I responded to his summons and we discovered the King as you see him now."

"Where is Tsal?" I wondered. As if in response to my question, the High Priest walked out of the bedroom.

"Captain," he noticed me. "A most unfortunate incident."

"Indeed," I nodded at his understatement. "What happened?"

"As per his instructions," the High Priest told us, "I reported to his Majesty's quarters at 05:50 hours. When he didn't respond to the door chime, I called your Security Chief here. Upon his arrival, Mister Vinnok overrode the door lock and we found the King dead."

"I'm sure we could all hazard a pretty good guess as to why he was murdered," I said. "Have you checked to see if anything's been stolen?"

"It was the first thing I did," Tsal was almost defensive.

"And?" I invited him to share his findings.

"The crown jewels are missing," he elaborated. "The killer has stolen the glor'yim!"

"Damn!" I cursed. It was foolish of me to hope that they hadn't been taken. "We need to find them. Vinnok, continue your investigation. I want a preliminary report in my ready room in one hour."

"Aye, sir," my Vulcan friend responded.

"Matt," I went over to where Doctor Quince was knelt over the corpse. "Anything?" The Doctor replaced the peripheral scanner into the top of his medical tricorder, then handed the tricorder itself to the young female nurse.

"He's definitely dead, Dave," Quince stated, quite obviously. "He died at about 2 o'clock this morning."

"Cause?" I inquired.

"By the looks of it, he was knocked en conscious," Doctor Quince informed me, "during that time he was injected with a poison that killed him almost instantly."

I sighed, "Well, I suppose someone should tell the Princess."

* * *

"It wasn't a task I was looking forward to performing," said Blakeney.

"Come on then," Azov was impatient. "Who killed him?"

"I'll get to that shortly," Blakeney told him. "As I was saying, I wasn't looking forward to telling Princess Y'trepp that her father had been murdered…"

* * *

I didn't have far to go, though, as her stateroom was just along the corridor to the King's. It didn't give me much time to compose myself. D'soped was all she'd had. Pausing outside the door to her quarters, I sighed. However, before I had a chance to push the keypad, the doors whooshed open.

"Captain?" exclaimed Snipes, almost bumping into me as he exited the quarters.

"Josh?" I was just as surprised to see him coming out of Y'trepp's stateroom. I noted that he was dressed in his dress trousers and T-shirt, which meant he'd been there since last night. "Is the Princess here?" I simply asked him.

"Er, of course," he was slightly taken about by my seriousness. I think he was expecting me to make a quip about him being there.

"Come in, Captain," Princess Y'trepp appeared behind Snipes and invited me inside.

"Thank you," I entered the quarters. In the centre of the room was Josh's easel, but the painting had been removed.

"If you'll excuse me," Snipes spoke up, "I need to get ready for duty."

He made to leave but I stopped him, "Actually, Josh, it might better if you stay."

"Is something wrong?" the Princess' smile vanished. I motioned for her to sit on the sofa, which she did. Snipes sat down next to her.

"I'm afraid I have some distressing news," I started. "There's no easy way for me to say this, so I'll just tell you. It's your father."

"What about him?" Y'trepp was suddenly very nervous.

I sighed again, then told her; "He's been murdered."

"What?" she asked in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," was all I could think to say. I saw Josh put his arm around her.

"Murdered?" she said, more to herself. "Why?"

"We believe it was because of the glor'yim," I informed her.

"The glor'yim?" she repeated.

"The crown jewels are missing," I continued. "It's possible that the killer took them."

"No," she shook her head. I thought she was in denial, but Snipes soon set me straight.

"The crown jewels aren't missing, Captain," he explained.

"Oh?" I felt a small twinge of hope. Snipes got up and went through to the bedroom. He soon returned, holding the necklace and the crown.

"They're here," he passed them to me and returned to Y'trepp on the sofa.

"How long have they been here?" I asked.

"We got them just after the meal last night," Snipes told me. "While King D'soped was having a brandy with you."

I nodded and decided, "Keep them here. If he was killed for the glor'yim, I don't want the murderer to find them."

"Aye, Captain," Snipes agreed. I surreptitiously signalled for him to stay with Y'trepp and comfort her. He acknowledged and I made to leave.

"I'm sorry, Princess," I added as the doors opened. "I assure you, we'll do our best to catch the person who did this."

* * *

"I hope you have some good news, Vinnok," I said, looking up at the Vulcan. As ordered, he had just arrived at my ready room to let me know how his investigation was progressing.

"We have finished scanning the King's quarters," he reported. "But it has revealed nothing conclusive."

"What about the sensor logs?" I demanded.

"I have yet to check the sensor logs," Vinnok admitted.

"And I assume Matt is doing a more thorough examination of the body," I said.

"He is," answered Vinnok. I nodded, got out from behind my desk, and went to the replicator in the little room just off the main office space. I picked up the tea as soon as it had materialised, then returned to my desk.

"Well I have some relatively good news," I informed the Vulcan. "As it turns out, the crown jewels weren't stolen." His eyebrow raised so I continued. "They're in Princess Y'trepp's quarters, complete with the glor'yim."

"That would suggest another motive for the murder," Vinnok said.

"Not necessarily," I responded. "Perhaps he was killed for the glor'yim, but the murderer was unable to find it."

"In that case," Vinnok reasoned, "the Princess is in danger from the assassin."

"I want the location of the jewels to remain a secret," I ordered. Tugging on my uniform top, I asked him, "Any suspects?"

"Negative," was his response. "To my knowledge, no one on this ship but the senior staff knows about the glor'yim, so there are two possibilities."

"Which are?" I wanted to know.

"Firstly, that the glor'yim was not in fact the motive," he explained.

"And the other one?" I pushed.

"That the Aurelian rebels have an operative aboard _Titanic_," finished Vinnok.

"Or maybe," I expounded, "it has nothing to do with the Aurelian revolution. Perhaps it was a lone mercenary who's heard about the glor'yim."

"Unlikely," Vinnok replied. "They would not have had a chance to come aboard since we were ordered to Aurelius. However, I am checking every avenue of investigation."

"Thank you, Vinnok." I told him. "Carry on." Nodding, Vinnok left the ready room. I got out of my chair and stood in the window, looking out at the stars. I was feeling extremely guilty. Our mission was to safeguard the life of King D'soped. But we'd rescued him from death on his homeworld, and brought him to a death in exile.

"Captain Blakeney," Doctor Quince's voice suddenly sounded, "please report to sickbay."

* * *

I stepped off the turbolift on deck 12 and made my way towards sickbay. It was my hope that the Doctor's further examination had turned up some conclusive evidence. Then again, even a tiny clue would be sufficient at the moment. The doors opened and I entered sickbay. D'soped's body was lying on the main bio-bed, with the surgical support frame over him. Quince and a couple of nurses bustled around the bed. Also in the room were Princess Y'trepp and Commander Snipes. The latter had now dressed in his duty uniform.

"What've you got, Matt?" I asked. The Doctor looked around at all the people, and obviously decided it would be best to speak in private. He motioned for me to follow him into his office. I did so.

"I may have something," he told me.

"Elaborate," I invited.

"I found the location where the poison was injected into his body," Quince stated. "It was in his neck. But there's some DNA around the wound."

"The killer's?" I guessed.

"Almost certainly," replied the Doc. "The King also has a lot of bruising on his body, as if he was in a fight. Probably the reason he lost consciousness. I found the same DNA in those wounds as well."

"Whose DNA?" I inquired. He looked troubled. Once he told me whose DNA it was, I too felt troubled.

* * *

"Well?" snapped Azov. "Are you going to tell me who's DNA it was or not?" Blakeney looked smugly across the workbench at the Ferengi.

"No," he grinned.

"What?" Azov cried. "Surely it's an integral part of the story!"

"It is," replied Blakeney. "And I'll let you know in due course…"

* * *

After hearing Doctor Quince's report, I left the office and returned to the main sickbay area. Y'trepp was stood next to her dead father, whilst Snipes was stood back. I went over to him.

"How's she coping?" I wondered.

"Surprisingly well," he told me.

"Stay with her," I ordered. "I think she could use your company."

Snipes nodded and asked, "Are you any closer to finding who did this?"

"I'm off to see Vinnok now," I replied. "I have a feeling we're about to catch our killer."

* * *

I found Lieutenant Commander Vinnok at the security/tactical station on the bridge. Stepping off the aft turbolift I made my way over to him.

"Anything?" I asked.

"I believe so," was his response.

"Come on," I beckoned him towards my ready room. "Carry on, Alondra." I said to Montez, who was seated in my command chair.

Upon entering the ready room, Vinnok reported, "I have completed my inspection of the sensor logs. They clearly indicate who was in the quarters with the King at the time of death." I nodded. We both knew who the killer was.

I finished his report for him, "High Priest Tsal."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter**

**7**

"Why would the High Priest want to kill the King?" Azov was confused. "It makes no sense."

"It makes perfect sense," Blakeney explained.

"Of course," thought Azov. "He was working for the rebel government."

"Actually he wasn't," corrected Blakeney. "Though he did tell the rebels that he was working for them. That was how he managed to sneak a transmitter into the prison."

"Cunning," Azov grinned. "But if he wasn't working for them, who was he working for?"

"He was looking after his own interests," Blakeney stated. "From what I gathered, he'd been after the thrown for some time, but obviously, the revolution had prevented those plans of his. The glor'yim offered him an alternative."

"He was going to take the Aurelian throne by force," Azov guessed. "Using a glor'yim powered weapon."

"It wasn't just the Aurelian throne he had designs on!" Blakeney continued. "Looking back, I suppose it was quite obvious who the killer was…"

* * *

The subject of the glor'yim had come up again after dinner. If you recall the King, Tsal, Doctor Quince, Counsellor Drake and myself retired to the lounge attached to the Captain's mess after dinner, to enjoy a brandy. When the conversation turned to the glor'yim, Tsal was again very much against destroying it, he almost turned violent, in fact. But again, the King was leaning towards its destruction, and the conversation moved on. After an otherwise enjoyable evening, King D'soped decided it was time for him to go to bed. He excused himself from my lounge, followed by Tsal, who offered to escort him to his stateroom. Once there, the High Priest asked if he could have a talk with him.

"Sure, Niaga," the King agreed, "come in." The two of them stood in the living area of the VIP quarters.

"It's about the glor'yim," explained Tsal.

"I had a feeling it would be," D'soped frowned. "It's no good trying to talk me out of it. My mind's made up. I'm going to destroy the glor'yim."

"You can't do that!" shouted Tsal. "That glor'yim is your last hope!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" D'soped snapped.

"With the power that that glor'yim can give us," Tsal elaborated, "we could return to Aurelius and retake your throne. We could crush the revolutionaries and no one would ever dare challenge you again." The King turned his back on Tsal and grunted.

The High Priest continued his reasoning, "Why stop at the Aurelian throne?" With a glor'yim powered weapon, we could conquer the neighbouring solar systems! Before long the Aurelian Empire would be a force to be reckoned with!"

"You're mad, Niaga!" the King turned round to look at the High Priest. "What's gotten into you?"

"I'm not mad!" Tsal defended, "I just have a vision! You're either with me, or against me!" Naturally, he had no intention of letting the King keep his throne once he'd got it back.

"You're a complete psychopath!" erupted the King. The High Priest went silent. He drew himself up to his full height, and looked down his nose at D'soped. The King felt threatened.

"You've been a thorn in my side for long enough, your Majesty! Give me the crown jewels," Tsal ordered.

"Never!" the King was defiant.

"Give them to me," threatened Tsal, "or die!" The King didn't move. He stood there adamantly, so Tsal decided he'd take the jewels himself. The case was on the floor in the bedroom, which Tsal knew. He strode towards the archway but the King jumped on him from behind. The High Priest stumbled forward, into the bedroom, but was then able to shake D'soped off. Tsal spun round and punched the poor King in the stomach and then threw him onto the bed, from where he rolled onto the floor. The Priest quickly moved towards the case and ripped off the lid. "Where are they?" he demanded, after rummaging through the case. He couldn't find them because, as you know, Princess Y'trepp was wearing them to have her portrait painted. However, High Priest Tsal was unaware of this fact, so he assumed the King had hidden them somewhere. He stormed back into the living room, shouting, "Where have you hidden them, D'soped?" The unfortunate King managed to pick himself up off the floor. He had no idea where the jewels were, but he was too angry with Tsal to let him get away with what he'd just done.

"You'll pay for this, Niaga!" he screamed, entering the lounge and hitting Tsal on the back of his neck. The High Priest cringed, but was not badly affected by this. He turned round and with the back of his hand, struck D'soped across the face, which sent him staggering towards the door. Tsal then chopped the King across the back of his neck and threw him onto the floor. D'soped landed on the glass coffee table, which shattered. He was now en conscious. The High Priest looked down at him in disgust, and after a fruitless search of the quarters, decided he should kill the King so he couldn't be incriminated. Tsal returned to the bedroom and grabbed an Aurelian disrupter from the crate. He hid this in his robes and went back into the lounge area. A ring on his finger contained a flip out syringe containing the poison, and he used this to kill King D'soped, before surreptitiously leaving the stateroom.

* * *

"So now you knew who it was," Azov added, "you arrested him."

"That's right," Blakeney nodded. "Vinnok and myself went to his VIP stateroom, where we took him into custody. He was subsequently escorted to the brig."

"Did he deny the charges?" wondered Azov. He was getting quite interested in the story.

"Of course," said Blakeney. "But once we'd explained that we had concrete evidence, he confessed."

"How boring!" decided Azov. "I was kinda hoping that he'd resist arrest so you'd be forced to use a security detachment to bring him in! Maybe a firefight or two, just to add a little action to the tale!"

"We'd see more than enough action before the day was over!" Blakeney stated. "Though, now that Tsal was in custody, I hoped that we would reach starbase 16 without any further incidents."

"As it turns out," Azov pointed out, "you didn't get there at all!"

"Indeed," Blakeney agreed. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves…"

* * *

After we'd taken Tsal to the brig, I went to see Princess Y'trepp in her quarters. I thought that she would like to know who had killed her father.

"Tsal?" she repeated through gritted teeth. "That poisonous snake! I should have known. He's been trying to get rid of my father for years!"

"But what has he got to gain now?" asked Snipes. "I mean, there's not much chance of him inheriting the thrown."

"He wanted the glor'yim," I responded. "Fortunately you had it, so he was unable to find it." Speaking of the crown jewels, I noted that the case had now been brought into her quarters.

"Can I go and see him?" Y'trepp asked. She was surprisingly calm.

"I don't think that would be wise," I told her.

"Captain," she snapped, "I want to see the man who killed my father! Please."

I thought for a moment and eventually decided, "All right. Josh, would you escort her."

"Sure," Snipes agreed. I withdrew from the room. As I walked down the corridor, Montez' voice came over the intercom.

"Montez to Blakeney," she said.

I responded, "Go ahead."

"Admiral Sheldrick is hailing, Captain," she told me.

* * *

I stepped into my ready room and seated myself behind the desk. I wasn't looking forward to telling him about the King. _Oh well,_ I thought. _Here goes._

"Andrew," I activated my desktop viewer.

"Dave," he greeted me. "Congratulations on the successful completion of the mission."

"Actually, sir," I tried to explain, "there were a few…complications."

"Complications?" Sheldrick was confused. "But your report said that you successfully rescued the King and his party."

"We did," I confused him further.

"Then what…?" he pushed.

"The King was murdered in the early hours of this morning," I broke the bad news.

"Murdered?" he was as shocked as I was at the news. "Who the hell would do a thing like that?"

"It was his High Priest," I told him.

"What?" the Admiral was livid. He sighed and calmed himself down. "Don't tell me; the glor'yim?" I had put about the crown jewels in my report to him.

I said, "I'm afraid so."

"This is an unfortunate turn of events," muttered Sheldrick.

"I agree, sir," I agreed.

"I'm afraid that that'll have to wait," he decided.

"Wait?" I inquired.

"I've got another mission for _Titanic_," explained the Admiral.

"Are you cancelling our stop at starbase 16?" asked I.

"That's right," replied Sheldrick. "Which means you'll have to keep the Princess on board for a while longer."

"What do you need us to do?" I wanted to know.

"I'm diverting the _Titanic_ to the Cardassian Demilitarised Zone," Sheldrick ordered.

"Trouble with the Maquis?" I wondered.

"Possibly," expounded Sheldrick. "A few days ago the _U.S.S. Rapier_ was conducting reconnaissance not far from the DMZ."

"The _Rapier_?" The name was familiar to me.

"It's the prototype for the new Rapier-class vessel," the Admiral informed me.

"Of course," I recalled. "Commanded by Captain Plant."

Admiral Sheldrick nodded and carried on, "Earlier today, Captain Plant contacted us over subspace. However, about an hour ago, we lost contact with the _Rapier_."

"And you want me to go and find her," I guessed.

"That's correct, Captain," Sheldrick pushed a control panel on his desk. "I'm sending you the last known co-ordinates of the _Rapier_. Good luck. Starfleet out." Without hesitation I jumped up from my desk and stepped out onto the bridge.

Looking at the Flight Control Officer I ordered, "Ensign, set a course for the Cardassian Demilitarised Zone. Maximum warp."

"Aye, sir," the young male responded, tapping commands into the conn.

"What about our scheduled stop at starbase 16?" Montez asked me.

I told her, "Our orders have changed."

* * *

While all that was happening, Commander Snipes had escorted Princess Y'trepp to the brig. The huge automatic doors slid open and the two of them walked in to the room. To their right, behind a vast array of consoles, sat the on duty security guard. To their left was the cell itself. Sitting on the bed inside was High Priest Tsal, who noticed the Princess' approach. She stopped just in front of the forcefield.

"Well, well, well," Tsal grinned. "This is a nice surprise."

"Isn't it just," the Princess gritted her teeth. Tsal climbed off the bed and moved towards Y'trepp. He stopped about half a meter away from the forcefield. The two Aurelians stared at each other through the invisible energy barrier.

"I wish I could say I was sorry about your father's death," Tsal said.

"Death?" scoffed Y'trepp. "You mean murder!"

"It was his own fault," the High Priest defended his actions. "He refused to see sense!"

"Sense?" the Princess couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"He should've listened to me," carried on Tsal. "Him and I, we could've used the glor'yim to retake his throne."

"You and him?" the Princess didn't believe a word. "You've been trying to get rid of my father for years!"

"Well now he's gone!" laughed Tsal. "Congratulations! You're the Queen!"

"You're insane!" cried Y'trepp.

"I've an idea!" Tsal suddenly announced. "Let's rule the Empire together!"

"What?" wondered Y'trepp.

"Marry me!" proposed Tsal. "We'll use the glor'yim to expand our Empire. We'll be the most powerful rulers in the quadrant!"

Y'trepp was appalled, "You unimaginable bastard!" High Priest Tsal burst out into a fit of maniacal laughter.

"Come on," Snipes, who had kept back until now, stepped forward and put his arm around Y'trepp. The two of them headed towards the exit.

"Think about it!" Tsal shouted after them.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter**

**8**

"Captain's log: Stardate 47988.2. The _U.S.S. Titanic_ has been diverted from our scheduled stop at starbase 16 and ordered to the Cardassian Demilitarised Zone. We are to investigate the alleged disappearance of the _Starship_ _Rapier_, a prototype ship for a new Rapier-class vessel. Starfleet Command suspects that the Maquis are involved and given their recent increased activity, it wouldn't surprise me."

I pressed the 'Stop' button on my log and sat back in my chair. I looked around my ready room and collected my thoughts. I thought about how familiar both the _Titanic_ and her crew had become to me. I was fond of them both, which always made it harder when I was forced to take them into potentially hostile situations. Tugging down on my uniform tunic, I sat forward in my chair, placing my hands on the desk in front of me. I turned my attention to the desktop viewer, upon which was displayed intelligence reports of recent Maquis activity. The disturbing trend that I had noted from these intelligence reports was that the Maquis were gaining in both strength and numbers. But that wasn't what disturbed me most about the Maquis. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have had any qualms about going into battle. I don't like it, but I know that it is sometimes necessary. What bothered me about fighting the Maquis was that they were once Federation citizens. Many of them were former Starfleet officers, some of whom I had even served with. Of course, I tried to reason with myself that it was not Starfleet who had waged war on them; they had waged war on Starfleet. By joining the Maquis they had renounced their status as Federation citizens. But somehow that didn't make the situation feel any better. Sighing, I stood up and again straightened my uniform. "Computer," I ordered, entering a small alcove just off from the main office area, "Old English Tea. Hot." My beverage materialised in the replicator chamber located in the wall of the alcove. I picked up the cup of tea and smelt the warm, calming aroma. After taking a sip of the soothing drink, I re-entered the office area. Instead of returning to the desk, though, I made his way to the window and looked out at the starscape beyond. Since the _Titanic _was currently travelling at warp speed, the stars appeared to be stretched as the huge starship flew past them. Sighing again, I ran my fingers through my hair. I took another sip of tea and returned my thoughts to the mission. The disappearance of the _Rapier_ was surely something to do with the Maquis. Who else would it have been in the Demilitarised Zone? Of course, the Cardassians were a possibility, but the Maquis seemed most likely. I was also sceptical of the theory that maybe the _Rapier's _disappearance was an accident, caused by tests being run on the experimental new ship. _The Maquis are definitely the number one suspects_, I decided. I now had to ensure that the _Titanic_ could withstand a Maquis attack, should a battle occur. Being a Nebula-class ship, the _Titanic_ was one of the most advanced in the fleet, but larger and more powerful vessels had been reported destroyed by Maquis attacks. I finished my tea and placed the cup and saucer onto the edge of my desk. Regardless of the enemy, though, my largest reservation about taking _Titanic _into battle was the fact that as well as the Starfleet crew, it carried families and civilians.

"Bridge to Captain Blakeney," a female voice sounded over the intercom. It was Commander Montez.

"Go ahead, Commander," I responded, noticing that the stars outside the window had returned to normal. _Titanic _had dropped out of warp.

"We are approaching the Cardassian DMZ, sir," Montez reported.

* * *

I stepped out of the ready room and onto the bridge.

"Any sign of the Maquis?" I asked, striding over to the command area.

"Negative," I heard Montez reply. I sat down in the Captain's chair and looked around the bridge at my capable officers. Seated in the chair on my left was Counsellor Drake. He had only just arrived on the bridge, and before sitting down, he'd swept the chair with his hand first. Commander Montez was seated in the chair on my right. Mister Vinnok was sitting at the tactical station directly behind my chair, and returning my attention to the front of the bridge; Lieutenant Banks was working away at ops. Several junior officers were also present, on conn, at the engineering stations, and a young trill was sat at Josh's console. As you know, Snipes was looking after Princess Y'trepp, who, as far as I know, was in her stateroom.

"Captain," Vinnok said, in his unemotional tones, "there is a nebula and an asteroid field not far from our position. Either of those could provide an adequate hiding place for the Maquis."

"I don't like it, Dave," Counsellor Drake leaned towards me. "The Maquis are nothing but a bunch of malcontent farmers, but they are annoyingly dangerous." I nodded but said nothing, returning my attention to the viewscreen.

"Begin scanning for the _Rapier_." I ordered. _She's out here somewhere_, I thought. But why had they lost contact with Starfleet? Maybe they were in the nebula. If they were, sensors would be unable to track them.

"Captain," Banks suddenly cried from ops, "there is a vessel coming out of the nebula."

Vinnok examined the data on his console and reported, "It is a Federation starship, sir. Registry NX-74580. It is the _U.S.S. Rapier_." It would appear that my initial guess had been correct.

"So," I thought out loud, "we've found the missing starship." I turned to the operations station, "Hail them, Lieutenant." Banks tapped at her console and the starscape on the viewscreen changed to reveal the bridge of the_ Rapier_. It shared the same configuration as most Starfleet bridges, and it was at Red Alert. Captain Plant, the _Rapier's_ CO, got out of her command chair. She was a short old woman, whose greying hair was tied back into a bun, but some stray hairs had managed to escape from her hair clip.

"This is Captain Martha Plant. What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Looking for you believe it or not," I said.

"Thank god you're here," Plant stated. "We've been attacked by the Maquis."

"Is that why you were in the nebula?" I guessed. "Hiding from them?"

"That's right," Plant confirmed. "Unfortunately they followed us in. We've been dodging them in there for hours."

"Are they still in there?" my apprehension rose.

"I believe so," Plant went on, "but obviously our sensors stopped functioning when we went in. They could've sneaked out without us knowing."

"Captain," reported Banks, "Maquis ships are beginning to emerge from the nebula."

"Shields up! Red Alert!" I shouted. "Commander Vinnok, report."

"Fifty-six Maquis raiders have emerged from the nebula," reported Vinnok.

"Hail the lead ship," I ordered. I hoped we could settle this without firing a shot.

"No response," answered Banks. _Damn those impudent terrorists!_ I thought.

"Then it looks like we'll have to fight," I announced, the recent thoughts in my ready room still ringing in my ears. On the viewscreen, Plant frowned and looked embarrassed.

"You may be able to, Captain," she said, "but our weapon systems are off-line. That's why we were forced to hide in the nebula." Before I could respond to that, _Titanic_ began to shake as Maquis weapons fire slammed into our shields.

* * *

Down in the VIP quarters, Commander Snipes picked Princess Y'trepp up from where she'd fallen on the floor. The two of them had seen the_ Rapier's_ appearance out of the windows. They'd watched as the manoeuvrable Maquis ships had flown from the nebula and opened fire on _Titanic_. It was that first jolt that sent the two of them crashing to the floor.

"Are you all right?" Snipes asked.

"I think so," she responded. Another jolt almost sent them back to the floor, but Snipes steadied himself and managed to hold onto Y'trepp.

* * *

Back on my bridge, I watched the attacking ships on the viewscreen. They looked like tiny flies buzzing around my enormous starship. Only these flies had the ability to do some damage. I noticed that the_ Rapier_ was gracefully dodging the weapons fire from the fighters. Although every now and then, a stray energy beam successfully racked the shields of the smaller Starfleet vessel.

"Captain," Vinnok broke through my thoughts, "two Hideki-class ships are dropping out of warp off our starboard bow."

"Cardassians," observed Montez.

"Any excuse to attack the Maquis," I observed, as they opened fire on the rebel craft.

"I'd say we could use their help right now," Drake obstinately stated. Suddenly an ODN discharge caused the console in the support leg of the helm station to explode. The blast caught the young Ensign in the face and he fell from his seat. I stared down at the unfortunate helmsman. The right side of his face was charred and blackened. He'd lost consciousness.

"Mister Drake," I shouted, "take the conn." The Counsellor got out of his chair and stumbled into the chair at the helm. I pushed a button on the arm panel of my chair, which opened a comm. channel, "Medical teams to the bridge."

* * *

Down in the engine room, V'ordell and her staff were feeling the impact of the attack.

"Let's get a stabiliser on that conduit," the Andorian ordered, as a conduit on the upper level of the warp core erupted into flames. Another explosion caught Lieutenant V'ordell's attention. This time it was right in front of her and the blast barely missed the unfortunate engineer. "Reinforce that starboard interlock," she turned to a nearby Ensign. "We need to re-route power through the secondary coupling."

* * *

"Captain," Vinnok said sternly but calmly, even the battle didn't stir his emotions, "our shields are down to thirty-eight percent." I wasn't surprised. The amount of damage the combined firepower from those fifty Maquis ships was causing was considerable.

Another explosion knocked me back into my chair.

"We're taking quite a beating!" shouted Montez. She was seated at Snipes's station, the science console.

"What about the _Rapier_?" I demanded.

"Her shields are holding," responded Vinnok. "And they appear to have regained weapon systems." The _Rapier's_ Chief Engineer had managed to get them back on-line.

"What about the Maquis?" I asked.

"Fourteen of their ships have been destroyed or disabled," Vinnok replied.

* * *

Captain Blakeney sighed. He could still hear the explosions, taste the smoke, and smell the burning.

"Now, as you know," he explained to Azov, "Nebula-class ships are quite sizeable, and as a result they lack the manoeuvrability of smaller vessels."

"In other words," stated Azov, "_Titanic_ was a sitting duck!"

"Precisely," Blakeney carried on. "Fortunately the _Rapier_ and the two Cardassian ships were a lot more manoeuvrable, so they weren't facing the same difficulties we were."

"I thought Nebula-classes were supposed to be good ships," Azov mocked.

"They are," defended Blakeney. "_Titanic_ had superior firepower to those Maquis raiders. Had they been bigger, we'd have easily seen them off."

"But they weren't," grinned Azov, "so you decided to do something that would even the odds."

"That's right," confirmed Blakeney. "I knew if we were on equal terms, we'd have more of a chance."

"So you took _Titanic_ into the asteroid field," Azov knew.

"Yes," announced Blakeney, "asteroids: the icebergs of space!"

"You must've been mad," scoffed Azov. "If you had no manoeuvrability in open space, what the hell did you think would happen if you stuck big rocks in the way?"

"One:" Blakeney explained, "those 'big rocks' would shield _Titanic_ from enemy ships. Two: the Maquis wouldn't have all the open space either. The asteroids would limit them too. I also knew that they wouldn't all follow us in, so we would have less of them to worry about…"

* * *

"Counsellor," I shouted, turning to the helm station, "take us into that asteroid field."

"I'll do my best," Drake answered, trying to get the hang of the controls. To be fair, he was a Counsellor, not a trained skilled pilot. Under the circumstances he did very well. _Titanic_ moved away from the fighting zone and successfully entered the asteroid field. I watched on the viewscreen as enormous rocks loomed into view and we soared past, missing them by inches.

"Several Maquis ships have followed us in," reported Vinnok. The _Titanic_ shook as the Maquis weapons bombarded it, but my plan had worked. The raiders were finding it difficult to target my ship, as the asteroids obscured parts of it. They also had to avoid hitting the rocks themselves, whilst dodging the phaser fire from _Titanic_, which had destroyed one of them already.

"Evasive manoeuvres!" shouted Montez.

"Evasive manoeuvres?" cried Drake. "In this asteroid field?" He suddenly noticed an asteroid directly ahead. Myself and the rest of the bridge crew stumbled over as Drake swerved the _Titanic_ to avoid it. Two of the Maquis raiders behind us didn't swerve in time and flew straight into the asteroid. The resulting explosion sent ship debris and fragments of rock straight into another few raiders, which disabled them.

"See," Banks said to Niles, "it's not that difficult."

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the asteroid field, the _Rapier_ swerved in and out of weapons fire, whilst letting off its own powerful phaser banks. The Maquis were suffering heavy losses, as they hadn't anticipated two Starfleet vessels and two Cardassian patrol ships. Needless to say, it was a bad move on their part to start a fight. Realising this, the lead ship sent out a signal to the others to retreat.

* * *

"Look," Y'trepp pointed out of the window. Snipes saw what she was pointing at. The three Maquis ships that had been attacking _Titanic_ were now moving off and leaving the asteroid field.

"They must be suffering heavy losses," said Snipes.

* * *

"The Maquis ships have gone to warp," Vinnok stated.

"Excellent," I smiled, returning to my chair. "Get us out of here, Niles."

"With pleasure," Drake replied, punching in commands to the conn. I saw him turn to face the ops station on his left. "You know, Daphne," he said, "this isn't so difficult." This made me smile, but the grin was soon wiped from my face when I saw what loomed into view on the viewscreen.

"Commander," I suddenly shouted, "I hope you see that!" Drake quickly turned his attention to the ship's course, and saw that directly in front of us was an enormous asteroid.

"Hard to port!" cried Montez. Drake tried not to panic as he hurriedly entered the commands.

"We're not going to make it!" observed Drake, as the _Titanic_ refused to turn quick enough. "Hold on tight!" As we came closer and closer to the asteroid, I knew we were going to hit. The huge vessel shook as the starboard side of the saucer section began to scrape along the rough surface of the asteroid. On decks 9 and 10, the rooms in that area of the saucer felt the impact. The bulkheads collapsed into the rooms and sent debris flying. A number of unfortunate crewmen were in those rooms, and they were all killed instantly when the windows shattered and they were blown out into space, where they slammed into the offending asteroid. All over the ship, my crew was thrown to the floor.

"Report!" I demanded, once we'd moved away from the huge rock. We'd scraped along it for about twenty-meters.

"We hit the asteroid," Drake replied.

"You think!" snapped Montez.

"Damage?" I picked myself up off the floor and turned to the tactical station.

Vinnok reported, "The starboard edge of the saucer section has sustained heavy damage. Structural Integrity Fields are holding."

"We have cleared the asteroid field, sir," Drake sighed. I straightened my uniform and seated myself in my chair. We had cleared the field on the opposite side to where we'd entered. The icy planet was directly ahead of us.

"Blakeney to engineering," I said over the intercom. "Status."

V'ordell's voice answered me, "The magnetic interlocks have been ruptured, I can't…" A large explosion in the background drowned out her words.

* * *

V'ordell turned around to see a deadly gas spewing from the warp core.

"Coolant leak!" she shouted. "Everybody, let's go! Let's get out of here! Everybody out!" A large, reinforced door began to descend from the ceiling, about midway down engineering. The numerous engineers hurried away from the dangerous warp core and ran down to the other end of the engine room. Lieutenant V'ordell checked to make sure she was the last one. As she was, she dived to the floor and rolled under the descending door, seconds before it hit the ground and sealed.

* * *

"Captain, we have a new problem!" she told me over the intercom. "The core's about to breach! There's nothing we can do!"

"Eject the core!" I ordered.

"Yes, sir!" V'ordell quickly responded. She gave the computer the order to eject the core, followed by her personal command code. On the ventral hull of the huge starship, the exterior hatch was jettisoned. The inner hatch then opened and the mighty core was blown out.

"The core has been ejected," Vinnok stated. I knew that we'd be caught in the explosion when it finally blew.

"Get us out of here, Mister Drake," I shouted. "Full impulse."

"The impulse engines are not responding!" reported Drake.

"Then use the thrusters!" I snapped. "And hurry!" The _Titanic_ slowly began to move away, but it was not fast enough. The pulsing warp core finally breached and the resulting explosion caused a shockwave that impacted the _Titanic_ and pushed us toward the planetoid. As I fell to the floor, I noticed that the rest of the bridge crew, indeed everyone on board, was also knocked off their feet when the shockwave hit us.

The computer beeped, then warned, "Primary stabilisers off-line. Switching to secondary systems." Just as we were about to climb to our feet, another jolt sent us back down to the floor.

"Report!" I wanted to know what the second jolt was from.

Drake told me, "We're caught in the planet's atmosphere!"

* * *

During this time, the _Rapier_ had spoken to the Cardassians and thanked them for all their help with the Maquis. It was now that their sensors detected the warp core explosion, and the fact that we had been knocked into the gravitational pull of the planet. Captain Plant ordered a course to be plotted in order to help us.

* * *

"Shit!" cursed Snipes. He looked out of the windows and saw the icy surface of the planet, rapidly approaching.

"What's happening?" Y'trepp screamed.

"We've been knocked into the planet's atmosphere!" he reasoned. "It looks like we're going to perform a crash landing!" He grabbed the Princess by the arm and ran into the bedroom. He threw her onto the bed and jumped on after her. "Keep your head down!" he told her, leaning over her so his body acted as a shield for any falling debris.

* * *

I gripped the arms of my chair and looked at the approaching planet on the viewscreen. It was completely white due the thick layers of snow on the surface. A few patches of ocean areas were also visible.

"You'll have to attempt an emergency landing, Niles," Montez pointed out.

"Oh goody!" Drake sarcastically replied. "I'm a Counsellor not a pilot!"

"We're coming in too fast!" I observed as the planet surface got closer and closer. "Reverse thrusters!"

"I've re-routed auxiliary power to the lateral thrusters!" announced Banks. "Attempting to level our descent!" This brought the front of the _Titanic_ up so we weren't approaching the surface at such a steep angle.

"All hands, brace for impact!" cried Montez, grabbing her chair for support. The _Titanic_ and it's huge shadow on the snow continued to get closer and closer. On the bridge, we all waited in silence, waiting for that inevitable moment.

Bam! We eventually hit the surface. Everyone on board fell to the deck. The deflector dish slammed into the ground and as we slid along the surface, snow debris was spewed up. As we plowed along on the warp nacelles, the snow not only began to slow us down, but also cushioned the ship from any serious damage. Obviously, the nacelles took quite a beating, but the secondary hull suffered very little. It had not yet been breached. Inside the ship, however, we were suffering. Energy discharges were causing random consoles to explode. Furniture all over the ship was thrown around, along with everyone on board. I sat in my chair, holding onto the arms for support. The viewscreen showed fountains of snow shooting up as we mowed through the glistening surface. It was now that things got interesting. Directly in our path was a large rock, almost as high as _Titanic_ itself. The snow did not cover it as thickly as the ground we'd been sliding along. The front of the secondary hull hit the mound, and as we were knocked upwards, the rock scraped along the ventral hull, causing it to breach. As a result of this impact, _Titanic_ veered off to port, and we came crashing back down into an area of the ocean. Our impact sent almost freezing water splashing outwards. We skimmed across the surface for a short distance, but soon came to a complete stop and just bobbed around in the water.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter**

**9**

"By now," Blakeney said, "the _Rapier_ had made its way through the asteroid field, and had entered orbit of the planet."

"So surely they just beamed you all off the _Titanic_ before it sank," Azov felt disappointed.

"Would that it were that simple, Azov," Blakeney shook his head. "Our problems had only just begun…"

* * *

I raised my head from where I'd fallen, and looked around my bridge. Other crewmembers were also getting up from where they'd fallen. Banks and Drake were both clambering up from under the viewscreen, where they'd been thrown from their consoles. Vinnok was already on his feet and so was Montez.

"I have one hell of a headache!" she announced.

"Captain," Vinnok was reading data from the security console, "the crash caused a breach in the secondary hull."

"Don't tell me," I bitterly stated, clambering to my feet. I looked at the viewscreen. It kept flashing on and off, but I could still make out the ocean outside.

"Yes, Captain," Vinnok finished. "Water is entering the ship. _Titanic_ is sinking."

"_Rapier_ to _Titanic_," Plant's voice sounded. "Respond."

"Go ahead," I tapped my combadge.

"Is everyone all right?" asked Plant.

"I haven't had a full damage report yet," I told her, "but we have a bigger problem."

"Oh?" she wondered.

"The crash breached our ventral hull," explained I, "We're now sinking in one of the oceans."

"We'll start beaming your crew aboard," Plant stated. I heard one of her officers in the background say something, which I couldn't make out. "Captain Blakeney," she spoke to me. "It appears that the _Rapier's_ transporter circuitry was severely damaged by the Maquis. It'll take several hours to repair it."

"Acknowledged," I replied through gritted teeth. "Lieutenant," I turned to ops, "get all the civilians to the shuttle bay and remaining escape pods. Then begin evacuating the crew. Niles, you go too."

"Yes, Captain," Banks complied, running off the bridge. Counsellor Drake followed.

* * *

"Hold on a minute," Azov raised his hand, "this is the important bit. So where is the glor'yim at the moment?"

"At this time, it was still in the crown jewels," answered Blakeney, "which were in the crate in Y'trepp's quarters."

"Right," Azov nodded, "I want to know its location throughout the entire sinking!"

"I'll tell you what I know," Blakeney said. "Which brings me to High Priest Tsal…"

* * *

As far as I knew, he was still in the brig. However, the crash had caused all forcefields to go off-line, and that included the containment field in the brig. The Aurelian had been thrown onto the bed during the crash, and he'd cowered there for the duration. When the shaking and jolting stopped, he peered out from behind his hands. What he saw was smoke seeping out of the control station outside the cell. The security guard was lying on the floor. He took this opportunity to escape. Quickly climbing off the bed, he outstretched his hand to where the invisible barrier had been. A grin crossed his evil face when he realised that the forcefield was down. The disgraced High Priest strutted out of the cell and out through the main door. Once in the corridor he saw numerous Starfleet officers bustling around. They looked worried he noted.

"Something's wrong!" Tsal whispered to himself. He sped up and soon began running. Everyone ignored him, so whatever was wrong, it was serious. Before long he found a turbolift, which took him up to deck 5, where he sprinted down the hallway to his assigned quarters. Once inside the High Priest looked out of the windows. If he wasn't mistaken, _Titanic_ was sitting in an ocean. He had heard Montez over the intercom warning everyone to brace for impact and it appeared that his subsequent assumption had been correct. They'd crash-landed. Tsal needed to be quick then. He found the Aurelian disrupter where he'd hidden it in the bedroom, and then headed for the door. "Your turn, Princess!"

* * *

"Are you all right?" Snipes asked, sitting up on the bed. Y'trepp, who'd been shielded by Snipes, looked up. The furniture in her quarters had been thrown around, but she was unharmed.

"Yeah," she told the Commander, climbing off the bed where she'd been lying. "Look at that!" she pointed out of the windows. Where once she'd seen the stars, she now saw a dull grey sky and snow covered hills. Even more alarming, was a cold blue ocean, in which _Titanic_ appeared to be floating.

"I wonder how bad the damage is," Snipes peered out of the windows. Suddenly Lieutenant Bank's voice sounded on the intercom.

"All hands, stand by to abandon ship," she said. "All civilian personnel report to the shuttle bay."

"This is bad," Y'trepp knew.

"Everything's gonna be fine, babe," Snipes held her. "Come on, let's get you to the shuttle bay." He led her out of the bedroom and into the lounge area, but an eruption of sparks soon stopped them in their tracks. It had come from the door keypad. Without warning, the doors themselves slid open and High Priest Tsal stormed in, brandishing the disrupter pistol.

"Surprise!" announced the intruder.

"You!" Snipes cried.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything," The Priest offered an empty apology.

"Niaga" reasoned Y'trepp, "we need to get off this ship! Now!"

"Oh, don't worry," Tsal responded. "I'm getting out of here! Just as soon as I've got the glor'yim!" The Princess and Commander Snipes looked at each other in disbelief, but Tsal then noticed the chest. "Stand aside," he ordered, pointing the gun at Y'trepp.

"Do as he says," Josh told her. The Princess stepped aside, into Snipes's arms, and the Priest dived at the box. Tearing open the lid, he found the crown jewels.

"At last," he cried, raising them out of the crate. "They're mine! All mine!" He attempted to pull the stones of glor'yim out of the jewels, starting with the crown. Josh seized this opportunity and while Tsal was struggling with the glor'yim, Snipes karate-chopped the back of the High Priest's neck. This caught him by surprise and so he dropped the crown jewels, but more importantly, he also dropped the disrupter. Josh wasted no time in grabbing Tsal by his collar, and punching him in the face. The evil Aurelian fell to the floor next to the crate, stunned. Commander Snipes moved towards the Priest, who noticed something in the crate. It was one of the coronation robes. Quickly, he whipped it out and threw it towards Snipes, which sent the Starfleet officer stumbling backwards, his vision impaired. Now it was Tsal's chance to seize the opportunity. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the disrupter from where it had fallen. As Snipes ripped the robe off his head, he saw Tsal pointing the disrupter at him.

Zap! A second later and Commander Josh Snipes lay on the floor, with a fatal wound in the centre of his chest.

"Josh!" cried Y'trepp, running over to her lover. Tsal returned to his task of recovering the glor'yim, which took about a minute. The Princess spent that time sitting over Josh's corpse, weeping.

"Come on, Princess," High Priest Tsal had put the two gems into his robe and was now on his way out of the quarters, grabbing Y'trepp on the way. She struggled intently, yelling profanities at him.

* * *

"It wasn't your day was it?" Azov put in. "You crashed your ship, then a murderer escaped from your brig and proceeded to kill one of your best friends. He also kidnapped a Princess and a means to create a powerful weapon."

"True, it wasn't one of the best days of my life," Blakeney agreed. "But in recent years I'm sorry to say that I've seen worse."

"Whatever," Azov waved his hand. "So when did you realise the High Priest had escaped?"

Blakeney continued, "At about the same time that Tsal was in Y'trepp's quarters. I was still on the bridge at the time…"

* * *

Montez and I were stood at the rear of the bridge, listening to Vinnok's report. He pointed at the ship schematic as he spoke.

"_Titanic_ is going down by the rear," he explained. "Decks 35 and 36 are submerged, and the water level is rising."

"Have they been evacuated?" was what I wanted to know.

"All civilian personnel are out of the lower decks, Captain," Montez told me, "and most of the Starfleet crew have been moved into the saucer. However, V'ordell and a few others are still down there trying to prevent the water from spreading."

"And the evacuation?" I wondered.

"The civilian population are in the shuttle bay, under the supervision of Lieutenant Banks and Counsellor Drake," Vinnok explained. "Once all the shuttles have been launched, we will utilise the escape pods."

"Very good," I nodded but before I could move on, my combadge beeped.

"Brig to Captain Blakeney," the security officer had recovered.

I tapped the combadge "Go ahead,"

"Sir, the High Priest has gone," the officer reported.

"Gone?" I repeated.

"Yes, Captain," explained the guard. "I lost consciousness during the crash and when I came to, he was gone."

"Okay, Yeoman. Blakeney out," I ended the transmission. Looking at Vinnok, it was obvious that we both knew exactly where the Priest would go. I opened another comm. link, "Bridge to Commander Snipes." No reply. "Josh, this is the Captain. Respond!" Why wasn't he answering? I tried again, "Princess Y'trepp, this is the Captain. Do you read me?"

* * *

Princess Y'trepp heard my voice and went to respond. But High Priest Tsal clapped his hand over her mouth, so all that came out was a muffled noise of some kind. The unfortunate female was then dragged off down the corridor.

* * *

"She's in trouble," observed Montez.

"Perhaps Tsal has kidnapped her," suggested Vinnok, "along with the glor'yim."

I made a decision, "Vinnok, you and I have got to find them. Alondra, take charge."

"Aye, Captain," nodded my First Officer. The Vulcan Security Chief and myself strode into the rear turbolift. It was a blessing they were still working.

"It is reasonable to assume that Tsal will try and vacate the ship," reasoned Vinnok.

"The shuttle bay," I agreed, and told the computer, "Deck 4."

* * *

Niaga Tsal rounded a corner, dragging Y'trepp by the arm. Directly ahead of them was a set of large automatic doors labelled SHUTTLE BAY.

"Here we are," announced Tsal. "Our escape,"

"You won't get away with this, you monster!" Y'trepp cried.

"My dear," grinned the Priest, "I am getting away with it!" The two of them went through the doors, one of four entrances into the vast bay beyond. The large, roughly oval shaped room was two decks high. In the very centre were shuttle maintenance bays, and around the outer walls were shuttle storage docks. The floor was covered in white and yellows lines, to show shuttle allocations. Directly to Tsal and Y'trepp's right was the launching bay. A long flat shelf that extended out of the external door, which at present was open. The cold water and snowy backdrop could be seen outside. Y'trepp noticed that many of the shuttles had already been launched. Civilians were bustling around the bay, waiting for one of the many Starfleet personnel to assign them to a shuttle. Lieutenant Banks was in charge, stood by a type-6 shuttle, loading people on board. "Here we go!" laughed Tsal, pulling the Princess over to Banks' position. "Say one word," warned the Priest, pushing the disrupter into Y'trepp's back, "and I'll kill you!"

"This isn't going to work, Tsal!" the Princess growled. Tsal ignored her and approached Banks.

"Lieutenant," he shouted, "the Princess and I need to leave the ship."

"You and everyone else on board!" snapped the Operations Officer.

"But…" objected Tsal.

"Get in line and wait your turn!" Banks told him.

"Wait a minute," Counsellor Drake had just arrived, "Aren't you supposed to be in the brig?" Tsal didn't waste another minute. He pulled the disrupter out from behind Y'trepp's back and pointed it at Banks.

"I want a shuttlecraft," he demanded. "Now!"

"That's far enough Tsal!" I shouted. Vinnok and I had just entered the shuttle bay and were approaching the High Priest, type-2 phasers drawn. The High Priest swung round and pointed his weapon at me.

"Stay back, Captain," he warned, turning the disrupter on Y'trepp, "or she dies."

"Don't be a fool!" I told him, but he'd begun slowly moving across the room, taking the Princess with him. He was heading for one of the turbolifts in the bay.

"You'll be sorry, Captain," Tsal told me, as he dashed into the lift and closed the doors.

"Damn!" I cursed. "Where's he taking her?"

Vinnok examined the turbolift keypad and reported, "The turbolift car is heading for the lower levels."

"What?" I was horrified. "They'll be completely flooded before long!"

"The lift has stopped at deck 31," Vinnok told me. I walked over to an adjacent turbolift stop and pushed the keypad.

"Come on," I ordered Vinnok as the doors whooshed open. Boarding the lift we ordered the computer to take us to deck 31.

* * *

"Are you a complete fool, Captain?" Azov interposed.

"I beg your pardon?" Blakeney was again distracted by the interruption.

"Why the hell did you follow him down?" wondered Azov. "You knew that that part of _Titanic_ was underwater."

"True," agreed Blakeney, "but he had the Princess."

"Oh no," Azov sarcastically stated.

"He also had the glor'yim," Blakeney pointed out.

This made Azov pause, but he decided, "You could always have gone back for it."

"Like you are now," smiled Blakeney. He carried on, "Anyway…"

* * *

Vinnok and I were in the turbolift, heading for deck 31. As we descended, I couldn't help thinking about what we'd find at the bottom. Were we on our way to a watery grave? My reverie was cut short when I felt the turbolift slow down and come to a complete stop. Taking a deep breath, and grabbing my phaser, I waited for the doors to open. I noticed that Vinnok too had drawn his firearm. Then, it happened. The automatic doors whooshed open and a wave of water pushed into the lift from the corridor. It continued to pour in until the water level was at our knees. The force had made the two of us stumble back until we hit the wall of the turbolift. We steadied ourselves and Vinnok stepped out of the lift first. I followed and we waded down the hallway, but upon reaching the junction at the end, an energy discharge flew inches past us and impacted the bulkhead. The blast had come from the disrupter that Tsal was pointing at us from down the corridor.

"Keep back, Captain!" he cried. Vinnok and I had dived for cover, back down the hall we'd just come from.

"We can't fire back," I observed. "We'd risk hitting the Princess." Vinnok agreed and peered around the corner.

"He is moving off down the corridor," he reported. I also looked around the corner. Tsal was wading off, with Y'trepp being dragged behind him.

"Come on," I signalled. Vinnok and myself followed them, though they didn't go very far. Just along the corridor was access to the Jefferies tubes, which they entered, after Tsal blasted off the door with his disrupter. "Give it up, Tsal!" I called after him. "You'll never get off this ship!" His response was another shot from the disrupter, which hit the water between me and Vinnok, making a large splash. It didn't take long for the two of us to reach the tubes, by which time Tsal had climbed to the deck above, with Y'trepp still as a hostage. As the Vulcan and I climbed the ladder, I noted that the water level had risen almost to our waists. I realised that whatever we did, we'd have to do it fast.

* * *

"Not like this story then," Azov again interrupted the tale. "Can't you give me the abridged version?"

"I wouldn't want to omit an important detail," smiled Blakeney. "Now if you let me finish without any more interruptions it may go a bit quicker…"

* * *

Vinnok and I exited the Jefferies tubes in main engineering. We were behind the large safety door that had closed during the core breach. It prevented us from accessing the rest of engineering. There was a large empty space where the warp core once stood. I walked over to the railings that once surrounded the engine core, and leant over the edge. The hole where the core should have been was dark, and seemed to go down forever. Suddenly, another weapons blast shot past my head. Spinning round, I saw Tsal hiding in V'ordell's office. Fortunately for me, being a Priest, he wasn't a very good shot with the disrupter. Before he could fire again, though, Vinnok took a shot at him, which forced him to retreat back into the safety of the office. It soon became apparent to me that Commander Vinnok and myself had no cover, no protection from Tsal's weapon blasts. However, the High Priest decided to change tactics. He decided to take advantage of his hostage, as he had done in the shuttle bay.

Grabbing Y'trepp, and jamming the gun into her back, Tsal gave me an ultimatum, "Let us go, Captain. Or the she dies!"

"You know I can't let you go, Tsal," I told him. "Not with the glor'yim in your possession."

"You don't have much of a choice, Captain," reasoned Tsal. "I've already killed one of your crew and I won't hesitate to shoot the Princess!"

"Josh!" I gritted my teeth. Before any of us could act, there was a loud explosion, and one of the consoles in the Chief Engineer's office shattered in a display of bright sparks. Tsal stumbled forward away from the explosion and in doing so, dropped the disrupter. It rolled across the floor towards me, where I kicked it into a corner. Y'trepp managed to pull herself away from him. "It's over, Tsal," I told him, pointing my phaser.

"Bridge to Captain Blakeney," Montez voice sounded.

"What is it, Alondra?" I asked.

"We've just lost many of our key systems," she explained, "including the turbolifts," At least that explained the explosion. The water must be leaking into vital computer areas.

"Acknowledged," I terminated the comm. link.

"Without the turbolifts," Vinnok reasoned, "the evacuation of _Titanic_ will take a lot longer."

"Then let's hope we don't run into any more snags," I replied.

"Captain!" Y'trepp screamed. She pointed to the back of the room, which was quickly filling with water. It was seeping in from the Jefferies tubes. While we were distracted, High Priest Tsal ripped off his ceremonial robe, which made him a lot more manoeuvrable. He pounced at me, knocking the phaser from my hand. Vinnok raised his weapon but couldn't fire in case he hit me. Tsal had his hands around my throat, trying to strangle me, but I clenched my fist and punched him in the stomach.

"Vinnok," I ordered, "get the Princess out of here! Now!" He grabbed the Aurelian and the two of them paddled through the ankle-high water and into the Jefferies tubes. Meanwhile, Tsal had recovered from the blow to his stomach and had launched another attack at me. He swung his fist at my face but I stepped back and he missed. He then launched himself towards me, but again missed when I dodged. He fell into the railings around the hole where the core used to be. I moved towards him as he got back up, and clenched my fist. Angrily, I punched him around the face, which sent him back onto the railings, where he slumped over them, not moving.

"That was for Josh!" I whispered, then moved away and retrieved my phaser. But Tsal groaned, and again stood back up. His face was bloodied and he seemed worn out. He screamed some kind of war cry and charged towards me. I spun around and fired my phaser. It hit him in the chest and he flew backwards, tripping over the railing and falling into the hole behind him. I ran over and looked into the blackness below. The phaser was on stun, but I was certain that the fall would kill him. In all honesty, I wasn't sorry.

By now, the water had reached where I was stood, and was running down, into the hole, which had previously stayed sealed and dry. I was about to leave when I remembered something. Seeing Tsal's robe on the floor, I knelt down and rummaged through it. I found the glor'yim in one of the pockets and took it with me. Wading through the knee high water, which got slightly deeper as I moved towards the back of the room, I entered the Jefferies tubes to the deck above.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter**

**10**

"I'm surprised at you, Captain," Azov grinned, wagging his finger at Blakeney. "Killing the Priest like that. Very un-Starfleet of you."

"That's enough, Azov!" Blakeney snapped. "His death was an accident. It was my plan to take him back to Starfleet for a trial."

"You keep telling yourself that, Captain," Azov was sceptical. Blakeney thought for a moment. Was he right? He was angry with Tsal for murdering Josh, but did he kill him for revenge? Of course not. It was self-defence. "Okay then," Azov went on, "what happened next?"

"After leaving engineering," continued Blakeney, "I found Vinnok and Princess Y'trepp waiting for me on the deck above…"

* * *

"Where is Tsal?" Vinnok inquired, as I clambered up the ladder.

"He's gone for a swim," I told him, a cheeky grin crossing my face.

"It's what he deserved!" the Princess coldly stated.

Vinnok raised an eyebrow, "And what of the glor'yim?"

"Right here," I held up the two black gems. "Now let's get out of here!" I went to climb up the ladder but Vinnok stopped me.

"We've already tried," Y'trepp explained.

"A large piece of debris is blocking our path," Vinnok said. Looking up, I saw that across the hatchway to the next deck, lay a large part of a bulkhead.

"Well then," I decided, "we'll find another way around." I opened the hatch into a vertical crawl-way, which I proceeded to enter. Y'trepp followed me in and Vinnok climbed in after her. The three of us crawled through the Jefferies tube for about fifty metres, until we came to another intersection, with an egress to the corridors. Approaching the door, I soon realised that they were another system that had gone down. Vinnok opened a compartment in the wall and took out the emergency door opener, a piece of equipment with a plunger like quality to it. Passing it to me, I pushed it onto the door, where it stuck. Then, using the handle on the plunger, I pulled the door open slightly, just enough for the Princess, Vinnok and myself to get into the corridor beyond.

"The water's catching up with us!" Y'trepp pointed out, noticing that there was about an inch of water on this deck.

"As long as we stay ahead of it we'll be fine," I stated, jogging down the corridor, the other two closely in pursuit.

"Where are we going?" Y'trepp asked, "The water's getting deeper. She was right, it was now up to our ankles.

"There's another Jefferies tube intersection down this hallway," I told her. Though I feared that it might already be flooded as we were heading towards the rear of the ship. Deeper into the water. "Here we are," I announced, arriving at another set of automatic doors. They weren't so automatic now, however. Vinnok had brought the plunger with us and so he set about opening the door. Unfortunately for us, however, Vinnok opened the door barely a millimetre and water began to seep out, from top to bottom. None of us noticed this though, so Vinnok continued to pull the door. Big mistake! As soon as the door was open a huge wave of water rushed out, which knocked the three of us off our feet and carried us down the corridor. There was nothing we could do. We were trapped in the current of the powerful wave. It washed us all the way down the long hallway and we only stopped when we were slammed into the wall at the end of a junction. Before it could carry us down another corridor leading off the junction, Vinnok managed to grab onto part of the wall. I too managed to grab part of the bulkhead and Y'trepp managed to grab onto me.

"The current is getting weaker here," noticed Vinnok. "I suggest we try and get to a turboshaft."

"Agreed," I agreed, and so we pulled ourselves along the corridor using the struts in the walls. It didn't take long to reach a turbolift, but the door opener was still attached to the door to the Jefferies tubes. By now, however, the water had risen to just less than half a metre from the ceiling and so we were now holding onto the struts above us, rather than the wall. Pulling out my phaser, I signalled for Vinnok to do the same. We both changed the setting.

"Once we have cut through," stated Vinnok, "the water pressure may well suck us in. We will need to wait until the water level has equalised."

"Hold on tight!" I warned Y'trepp. I saw her grip the ceiling tighter, she also put her other arm around my waist. "Okay, Vinnok, let's do it." We both fired at the door, cutting out a hole large enough for the three of us to squeeze through. We both cut the top, then a side each, until meeting up again along the bottom, which we had to cut by firing through the water. "This is it!" I stated, as our two phaser beams reached the same point. With an almighty force, the water pushed through the hole, filling the turboshaft beyond. I felt myself being sucked towards it, but managed to keep my grip on the ceiling. It wasn't long before the current stopped again, and the water level equalised. The lower levels of the shaft must already have been flooded. I wasted no time, "All right, let's get moving." Vinnok went first. Unfortunately the water level had risen again so most of the hole was now submerged. The Vulcan ducked under water and swam through the hole, popping up in the shaft beyond. I motioned for the Princess to go next, then, taking a deep breath, I followed her through. The three of us bobbed around in the flooded turboshaft for a while as we got our breath back and removed hair and water from our eyes. Looking up the long lift shaft, I was relieved to see that there was no turbolift car blocking our way. Y'trepp looked at the ladder running up the side of the shaft. The top of the shaft was only four decks up, but it looked like a long climb.

"Can't we just wait here until the water level rises and takes us to the top," she joked. I chuckled and swam over to the ladder.

"We'd better get climbing," I decided, pulling myself out of the water and up the ladder. Y'trepp followed shortly after, then Vinnok got onto the ladder behind her. It took less than five minutes to reach the top. I then used the emergency door release panel and before long the three of us were standing in a corridor on deck 25, getting our breath back and dripping water onto the carpet. "Blakeney to bridge," I tapped my combadge, "How's the evacuation?"

Commander Montez responded, "Almost all of the shuttlecarft have now been launched, and we've just started sending out the escape pods."

"Are all the civilians off the ship?" I wondered.

"Yes, sir," Montez told me. "Only Starfleet personnel left to evacuate."

"Thank you, Alondra. Carry on," I ended the communication.

"I suggest we escort Princess Y'trepp to an escape pod and then return to the bridge," said Vinnok. I agreed with him and so we made our way to the Jefferies tubes again.

* * *

"Just a minute," Azov stopped Blakeney. "What was the _Rapier_ doing while all of this was happening?"

"They still hadn't been able to get their transporters back on-line," replied Blakeney. "Which meant that once the shuttles were launched, my crew had only escape pods."

"Surely there were enough?" Azov stated. "History didn't repeat itself that badly!"

"Oh there were enough," Blakeney concurred, "but many of them were underwater. Only the pods on the dorsal hull of the saucer were available. This meant that those of us who didn't have an escape pod, where relying on the crew of the _Rapier_ to get the transporters operational again."

"Anyway," Azov moved on, "I assume that you still had the glor'yim at this point."

"You assume correctly," Blakeney nodded. "Now if you'll let me carry on…"

* * *

Vinnok, Princess Y'trepp and I left the Jefferies tubes on deck 5, where we bumped into Lieutenant V'ordell, who was overseeing the launch of the escape pods.

"Captain?" she was surprised to see us, especially dripping wet!

"No time to explain, Lieutenant," I told her. "Would you take the Princess to an escape pod."

"Sure thing," said V'ordell.

"Thank you, Captain," the Princess gave me a hug. "You too, Mister Vinnok."

"We'll see you on the _Rapier_," I smiled. She and V'ordell went to move off down the hallway, but Y'trepp turned back.

"Captain," she said, "I'm sorry about Josh."

"It wasn't your fault, Princess," I told her.

"But if I hadn't come aboard, or if we hadn't…" her eyes began to fill up. I went over and put my arms around her.

"Don't think like that," I tried to comfort her, while holding back my own emotion, my own sadness. "If you hadn't come on board the two of you would never have met. And believe me, You made him very happy, Princess."

"I'm going to miss him," she sobbed, holding me tighter.

I felt a lump in my throat, "So am I."

* * *

It had been about an hour now since the _Titanic_ had first landed in the ocean. By now, the entire engineering hull was underwater and the ship itself was at almost a 45-degree angle, with the front of the saucer pointing upwards. Escape pods continued to fly up from the sinking ship.

"Report," I ordered Montez, as Vinnok and I stepped onto the bridge out of the Jefferies tubes.

"V'ordell and her team have managed to seal the breach in the saucer section," Montez began.

"But?" I prodded.

"Systems are continuing to go down one-by-one, Captain," Montez reported. "The civilian population have all been evacuated now, but we still have most of the crew to go."

"Any news from the _Rapier_?" I asked.

"They updated us a few minutes ago," Montez said.

"Still no transporters?" I guessed.

"No, sir," Montez shook her head.

"Well then," I continued, "let's carry on without them. Is there any way we can construct some kind of boat or raft."

"And ferry the crew over to the land?" wondered Montez.

"Precisely," I told her.

"I suppose we could try and piece one together," she began thinking.

"Excellent," I smiled. "You're in charge of that. Get on it."

"Yes, sir," she ran towards the Jefferies tubes, in the forward starboard wall of the bridge.

I turned to my Vulcan Security Chief, "Vinnok, what will be the last place on board to go under?"

He pointed at the ship schematic on the back wall, "As the saucer fills with water, the front of _Titanic_ will continue to rise until the vessel is vertical. As the ship continues to become flooded we will sink into the ocean in that vertical position."

"Right then," I decided, "I want to relocate our command post to Ten-Forward."

"A prudent course of action," Vinnok concurred.

Suddenly, my combadge beeped, "_Rapier_ to Captain Blakeney."

"Go ahead," I responded to Captain Plant.

"Good news," she stated, "Our transporter systems are back on-line. We'll begin beaming your crew up."

"Thank you, Captain," I responded, cutting the link. I tapped my combadge again; "Blakeney to all remaining hands, the _Rapier's_ transporters are back on line. Stand by to be beamed up."

"All the escape pods have now been launched, Captain," Vinnok reported. He had moved over to the security/tactical station.

"Then it's up to Captain Plant and her crew now," I said. I made my way over to my ready room, but because the ship was tilting it was becoming increasingly difficult to manoeuvre oneself without holding onto something. Upon reaching the doors, I managed to prize them open and slip into the office. Rushing over to the window and looking out, I could see for the first time what was actually happening. I watched as my ship slowly descended into the icy water below, at an increasingly steep angle. _It's time to go, _I told myself, but before leaving the ready room, I stopped in front of the painting on the wall, depicting the original ship, _R.M.S. Titanic_. "Who says history never repeats itself?" I asked myself. Upon my return to the bridge, I signalled to Vinnok. "Let's get going." The two of us entered the Jefferies tubes via the door to the right of the viewscreen, though I paused for a moment and looked back at my bridge.

"Captain?" Vinnok was curious.

"I'm coming, Vinnok," I stepped into the tubes. "I just wanted one last look."

* * *

"Okay, so the _Rapier_ beamed you all up," Azov snapped. "Happy ending! What about the glor'yim?"

"I either tell you the whole story, or I don't tell you the story at all," warned Blakeney.

Azov crossed his arms as if in a sulk, "You should be a public speaker!"

"I'll continue," Blakeney went on. "It took over half an hour to transport the remainder of my crew onto the _Rapier_…"

* * *

In that time Vinnok and I managed to crawl through the Jefferies tubes to deck 10, where we proceeded to set up a new command post in the Ten-Forward lounge. Meanwhile, the ship continued to fill with water, pulling us further and further down into the ocean. Room after room became submerged as crewmen all over the ship were transported up to the Starfleet vessel in orbit. _Titanic_ was almost vertical now, and so Vinnok and I were stood on the back wall of the lounge. The front windows above our heads showed the dull grey sky above.

"How many more?" I asked.

Vinnok leant over to a control panel behind the bar and replied, "There are still seventeen crewmembers aboard." As I waited for those seventeen to be beamed, I looked up at the Ten-Forward bar. I remembered the reception that was held there the day I took command. All the ships senior officers had been present, along with numerous other crewmembers and civilian personnel. The party had gone on nearly all night and had been the perfect way for the crew and I to get to know each other.

"_Rapier_ to Blakeney," Plant said over my combadge, "we've got everyone. That just leaves you." I looked at Vinnok and then back into the room.

Tapping my combadge I said, "We're standing by." A couple of seconds later, Vinnok and I were pulled away in the glimmer of the transporter beam.

* * *

On the bridge of the _Rapier_, the crew were watching my starship on the viewscreen.

"Captain Blakeney and his Security Chief are aboard, Captain," the Ops Officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade David Maguire reported. "They are on their way to the bridge."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Plant seated herself in her chair and returned her attention to the sad image on the viewscreen. Before long the turbolift doors whooshed open and Vinnok and myself stepped out onto the bridge. Everyone there was silent and I followed their gaze to the front of the room. I watched intently as my starship vertically descended into the cold ocean, one hour and forty minutes after it had first crash-landed. Slowly, the last few metres of _Titanic_ were visible in the large expanse of water, then it was gone. My home for the last four years was on its way to the seabed.

The _Rapier's_ First Officer was the first to break the silence, "So, the _Titanic_ has been sunk again." I turned to Captain Plant.

"Captain," I said, "I offer my thanks from the crew of the _Rapier_."

"Just glad we got you all out of there," smiled Plant.

"And my compliments to your Chief Engineer for getting those transporters back," I added.

"You should thank my First Officer as well, Captain," Plant pointed out. "After all, he took charge of the operation."

I turned to face the FO and extended my hand for him to shake, "Thank you…Commander?"

"Lieutenant Commander Ryan, sir," he told me. As you know, he was soon to become my first Officer aboard the _U.S.S. Warrior_.

"It would seem you're a good man to have around in a crisis," I stated.

"Thank you, Captain," Ryan grinned.

* * *

"This is all very sweet," Azov sarcastically said, "but what about the glor'yim?"

"Of course," Blakeney responded, as if he'd forgotten. "At this point I was still in possession of the glor'yim…"

* * *

I asked if I could see Captain Plant in her ready room. She led the way across the bridge and Vinnok, Ryan and myself followed her in. I explained the whole situation to them and a discussion ensued about what the fate of the glor'yim should be. We talked about the possibility of turning it into a weapon that we could use against the Borg, but it was thought that the risk of the weapon falling into the wrong hands was too great. Eventually, we unanimously agreed as to what should happen to it.

* * *

"So," Azov demanded, "Where is it?" He wanted to know where he could find it.

"Are you sure you really want to know?" teased Blakeney.

"Dammit, Captain!" Azov shouted. "Tell me where the glor'yim is!"

"I gave it to Commander Ryan," explained Blakeney, "who loaded it into one of the _Rapier_'s photon torpedoes…"

* * *

"Are we in position?" Plant asked. We'd brought the _Rapier_ to an uninhabited area of space. The helmsman confirmed that we were.

"Is the torpedo loaded?" inquired Ryan.

"Yes, Commander," Lieutenant Jade Tyler reported from the security/tactical post.

"Shields to maximum," Ryan added.

"Would you care to do the honours, Dave?" offered Plant.

"My pleasure," I replied. Pausing for dramatic effect, I ordered, "Fire!" A single photon torpedo spewed forth from the _Rapier's_ torpedo launcher. It flew in a perfect straight line away from the ship, and when it was a sufficient distance away, kaboom! We detonated it. The shockwave caused by the glor'yim expanded for miles, knocking into the _Rapier_ and causing the crew to hold on tightly. "It's over!" I stated.

* * *

"You destroyed it!" Azov erupted. "You idiot, Blakeney! You complete and utter fool!"

"Don't tell me you're naive enough to think I would've done anything else?" Blakeney told her.

"Your right," Azov snarled. "I should've expected this from you, Captain!"

"Don't feel too badly," Blakeney smugly comforted him, "I'm sure you can make a profit out of the artefacts you've already recovered."

"Don't provoke me, Blakeney," Azov was livid. "You've been leading me along. Telling me that whole story knowing full well that what I wanted no longer existed!"

"You must've suspected, DaiMon," smiled Blakeney. "I'd hardly have told you the story if I knew you'd actually find the glor'yim."

"Have a good laugh, Captain," Azov said through clenched teeth. "While you still can! Now get off my ship before I throw you off!" The Ferengi drew himself up to his full height, yet still only came up to Blakeney's shoulders.

The Starfleet Captain tapped his combadge, "Blakeney to shuttlecraft _Carparthia_, energise." Azov watched as Captain Blakeney dematerialised in a twinkling of blue light then vanished. As soon as he had gone, The Ferengi slammed his fist down onto the workbench in a fit of anger.


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Lieutenant Shannon Wilcox was bored. The _Warrior_ had been holding this position for hours and there was nothing of interest in the region for the sensors to detect. She looked at her post – the bridge science station - where she was currently sitting, hoping that if she stared at it for long enough something interesting might happen. It certainly made her jump when the console actually beeped. She composed herself and pushed at buttons on the console.

"Commander," she turned to where Commander Fortescue was sitting in the command area.

"What is it, Shan," Fortescue wondered.

"Captain Blakeney's shuttle is approaching us," reported Wilcox.

"He's requesting permission to dock," Lieutenant Commander Phillips said from the ops console.

* * *

Less than fifteen minutes later the turbolift doors opened and Blakeney stepped out onto the bridge.

"Welcome back, Captain," Fortescue stood up and turned to face her CO.

"Thank you, Commander," Blakeney smiled. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

Fortescue shook her head, "Just routine, Captain. I trust you achieved what you wanted."

"Remind me to tell you about it sometime, FO," smiled Blakeney, heading for his ready room. "Miss Phillips, would you open a channel to the _U.S.S. Seattle_. I'd like to talk to the Ship's Counsellor."

"Aye, sir," Phillips replied.

"Patch it through to my ready room," ordered Blakeney.

He walked through the doors and seated himself behind the desk, whilst switching on his desktop viewer. Before long a face appeared on the screen. It was the Seattle's Counsellor, Commander Niles Drake.

"Dave," Drake was surprised to see his old Captain.

"Hello, Niles," Blakeney smiled.

"What can I do for you, sir?" inquired Niles.

"Nothing in particular," explained Blakeney. "But recent events have gotten me thinking. Do you remember after the sinking of _Titanic_, we all stayed in regular contact with each other?"

"But the recent war split us up," agreed Drake.

"Well I thought it was about time I contacted everyone again," Blakeney told the Counsellor.

"Tell me," Drake said, "what 'recent events' made you think of _Titanic_?"

"Well," began Blakeney, preparing himself to tell yet another tale, "did I ever tell you about a Ferengi DaiMon named Azov?"


End file.
